All's Fair When You're in Love in War!
by Mermaid's Lagoon
Summary: Tomoyo and Sakura belong to the rich fashion family Amamiya, and Eriol and Syaoran belong to the business-oriented Li clan! What happens when the four begin to mix at Meiling's club? Love! Well, violence too... S.S E.T!
1. Running, Explaining, and a Hot New Club!

_**Ok, so Authors notes (or A.N's) will be done in bracketts like these -blah blah blah-. If I have her thinking something specific I'll use this: 'blah blah'. Hmm... if you have any questions feel free to ask me stuff in the reviews and I'll answer them up here at the tops of chapters. If something doesn't make sense please tell me, cause I want this fic to be as awesome as possible! And if any of the jokes suck or don't make sense or anything please please please tell me. Basically I deeply appreciate all reviews, especially criticism, but I am going to ignore any flaming. **_

_**I put a lot of explaining in this chapter and in some of the next ones because I added a bunch of stuff that'll be hard to explain once I get to parts where I want the plot to go uninterrupted without having to explain stuff. But if you think it all sounds too wordy please feel free to complain!**_

_**Ok, I think thats it! Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: If I owned CCS, I would try to take over the world. Or at least buy Japan. But i don't own it... **_

**All's Fair When You're in Love in War!**

I landed almost soundlessly on the dark rooftop and continued to move, my hand going to the Swiss Army knife tucked into my jeans as I strained to hear the quiet footsteps that followed me. If they didn't give up I was going to have to fight. Definitely not pleasant, especially since I had promised Sonomi that I wouldn't start anymore fights this week. Not to mention that trying to fight Eriol and Li at the same time alone should be listed legally as assisted suicide.

I spotted a fire exit and slid down the side of the ladder quickly, landing on the ground as softly as I could. Bouncing into a sprint, I rounded the corner of the building, trying to retrace my steps before I turned a different direction to lose them.

Praying that they didn't have people following them on the street and cursing the fact that I had run out of roofs I realized that needed to find a club. Any club would do so long as there was a crowd and a phone. One of Meiling's clubs would have been nice, but I wasn't any closer to one of hers than I was to a subway.

I dash across a deserted intersection, glancing up at the street signs as I did so. 'Liberty and Hawkins'. Damn! Still too close to their area to find any clubs they won't have connections at! And I'm not near any club of Meiling's; I won't even make it ten more blocks… Wait… Liberty?'

I paused, allowing the brief familiarity I had just felt to surface, becoming a memory. Meiling's new high-class club, Skylight something, was two turns and just a few more city blocks away. Soundlessly thanking the good Clow Mirror for the memory, I shuffled to the edge of a streetlight, despite the obvious risk of being seen. I yanked the directions and pass I had skimmed over two days ago out of my left jacket pocket. Memorizing the directions written on the paper and stuffing it back into the denim pocket, I gripped the elevator pass tightly in my ice-cold hand and began to move.

Hearing a faint exclamation from the roof of the building to my right that sounded awfully similar to the word bitch as I passed through the streetlight, I glanced up, seeing one of the two guys I was so desperately trying to evade. He was waving with a hand holding a gun for his partner to hurry up and I could see a small ponytail where his hair was tied back due to the angle of his head.

A/N: yes, I promise that isn't a useless detail…-

Not stopping to question the lack of gunfire, I shook my head to focus. Cursing myself silently for my stupidity I ran faster, taking a right at the intersection I was in. I could feel my body slowing down as the night began to take its toll on me. I do not tire quickly, but tonight had been very… eventful. Plus, I had been running all week, so I was a bit worn down. In my head I began alternating praying to any and all Clow to help me make it, and repeating the directions.

Finally, I turned onto some busier streets and sped up, but could still hear following footsteps and distant cries of outrage from the people walking the street, who had obviously been shoved aside. One more block and I saw the club. It was a gorgeous building that was thin for about ten stories before branching into a spiraling glass oval at the top. Its name was written vertically over the first few stories, spelling out 'The Skyline' in white-blue light. Apparently naming clubs in English was also all the rage -A.N: They're in Tokyo, remember-. I remembered reading raving reviews on the genius of the design. Meiling always had had a flair for the so-extremely-stylish-it-walks-the-fine-line-of-good-and-bad-taste type of architecture. Fortunately for her, the designs she picked always turned out just on the fabulous side of the line. Or maybe she just had truly impeccable taste.

There was a long line, most likely due to the fact that it was the opening night of a club whose owner was well known for several other recently chic and popular clubs. I flashed my pass at Sammi, the bouncer for opening night and, thank the Clow, a bouncer I knew (I go to clubs a lot and Sammi's fun), stopping in front of him to smile gratefully as I pulled at my lungs for breath. He nodded understandingly, seeing how breathless I was and knowing my taste for trouble, soundlessly allowing me entry and scanning the street for my followers.

"Wait!" I whispered once I was past, keeping my voice low and talking as quickly as possible, "They're gonna try to pay you off! It's ok to let them in. But, only if they pay enough, ok? Complain until they pay too much, but don't let them leave. I'm just gonna need a little time. They can figure out how to get up the elevator themselves." I wasn't going to give up an opportunity to talk with them in one of our clubs. They had come too far, and understand our rules of civility and politeness far too well, to simply turn back. Plus I'm sure they wouldn't mind a little dancing either. Turning away from Sammi's friendly nod and shove in the direction of the door, I glanced out at the street, and, seeing a dark figure pointing and yelling at Meiling's club, I stepped quickly inside.

I sighed, safe for a few minutes and sat down in the nearest chair, letting the music of the Dragostea Din Tei remix, by O-Zone, wash over me.

A.N: yes that is a real song, and yes it kicks ass-

My head shot up again when I heard the clang of an elevator, my rest disturbed, and I waited patiently for the people leaving to clear before jumping through the doors. I slammed at the buttons to close the doors and grinned when they closed on the face of an annoyed employee, thanking Meiling for installing the first fast doors I'd seen on an elevator since I had first ridden in one. I then slid my passcard into the scanner and pressed TL for the top level. Thanks to my carrying around the card as well, I didn't need the employee.

I sat back and sighed, looking at the wall of the elevator, and seeing a surprised look on the face that stared back from the glass. Gazing intently at the reflection, I watched it smile as it realized I was not exactly dressed for the VIP section of a club. The mirror showed a tired 17-year-old girl, about 5''8 or 5''9, with amethyst eyes that were a shade too purple to be normal. It reflected the paler form of Asian skin (-A/N: Tomoyo was always a little paler, remember-), a loose, knee-length black denim jacket, designed like a trench coat, with a dark purple flower on the back. The dark denim was complemented by the black, ripped and stonewashed jeans worn above dark gray Puma's, despite the fact that denim on denim normally looked bad. Thanks to the slanted mirrors placed where the corner of the elevator would have been, I could see that my hair covered most of the flower.

"Well." I commented to myself quietly, "Meiling certainly found a solution to a VIP getting claustrophobic in a semi-crowded elevator. Not to mention anyone made slightly dizzy by drugs would probably throw up on the way. Not bad… But this will definitely get comments from the critics about being the only bad thing in the club. Hopefully she didn't overuse the whole mirror and glass theme…"

The shirt the girl in the mirror wore was white, flimsy, and clinging. A gray picture of a sad woman looking into a shattering mirror was on the front, and the material was sheer enough that you could see the mirror-girl wore a black tank top. Her hair fell just past the edge of her jeans, curled the nearer it got to the bottom, and contained several different shades of gray and black that shined in the glare of the elevator lights. It was messy and wind-blown from the race through the city, which was actually a good look for hair that was usually too flat on top.

All in all, my look wasn't too bad. But usually girls these days wore short skirts to dance in, not just tight jeans with a tight shirt. Everyone knows that's what most guys like dancing with. The multi-layered skirts that had a lot of cloth while managing to stay amazingly short were all the rage this season. I smiled at the irony. Me, the daughter of one of the most famous designers in the world, who had just recently finished a show in Milan, dressed in something not the latest for a VIP room in the most chic club in the Tokyo. Of course, it definitely would have been more difficult to run in a skirt so I suppose I shouldn't mind too much. At least I had makeup, even if it was a touch heavy around my eyes from where it was smudged. That's how it was done in the clubs these days anyway.

Busy inspecting my finely-boned face, I smiled as the elevator clanged again and the doors opened as I straightened, my temporary contentment gone. I stepped through to a room where the thick frosted and layered glass walls spiraled upward. Blue and white lights flashed around the room, centered in the middle, causing a sharp contrast to the darkness found at the room's edges.

A glass-topped bar formed an unending circle in the center of the room with blue and white modern chairs circling it. The DJ was seated on top of the bar, which had its own roof. Lining half the room were circles of floor that had been pushed up more and more each level, connected by steps that sloped upward as each separate piece curved between its two circles. They came complete with a railing that looked to be solid, and probably very thick, glass going from the floor of each connecting walkway to a little above a tall person's waist. It was obviously there to assist the drunks. I could see little rooms set inside the top few levels as the cylinders got high enough to allow enough room to sit. At the top level there were less people than in the rest of the room. There was also a circle of furniture that seemed to belong there more than the couches and chairs that lined the remainder of the bottom level did. You could tell that Meiling enjoyed spending money.

With a low whistle, I began to pick my way around the edge of the room that would take me to the lowest platform. Rubbing my head, I willed back a migraine as I prayed desperately to any and alls for Meiling to not be too busy to see me. That would provide unnecessary complications. I paused to gather my composure halfway through the room, after I barely managed to avoid a drunk. Walking more confidently with a high-held head, and playing off my pride to get more awake, I reached the platform and worked my way to the fourth before being stopped by a guard I did not know.

This was where the VIP guards began to be suspicious, annoying bastards. Rather than argue I simply pulled the sleeve of my jacket up to show a guard the hennaed circle on the inside of my wrist, the VIP marking for this club, circled by a larger circle, to get me all the way to Meiling and the… extra special elite VIPs, I guess you could call them.

The invite and directions had been sent to me in the mail a week ago. The directions had been for me, but the invite every VIP here tonight had received. Only a select few, including businessmen and women, critics, and certain friends had gotten permission for a second circle. If everyone at the top level had been a true VIP then there wouldn't ever be enough for a really good club level.

It was a current fashion to provide a way to have important guests be visually recognized as invited by the bouncers, rather than take a pass with you to get into clubs. An employee could let you up to the top level with the tattoo, and you wouldn't have to waste time getting out a pass each time someone was suspicious. A fashion, which, coincidentally, had been started by Meiling. On the invite I had received a week ago, but had not read or shoved into my jacket pocket before yesterday, it had offered a circle done in henna as the body pass. I had gotten mine done that same morning. If you preferred the marking to a pass, each club provided several different tattoo artists who each held specific lists as to who to provide a mark with if one was requested. Pretty weak security unless, like Meiling, you had gang ties that could stretch into the henna business. Plus that had made many of my jobs easier, not that I myself wasn't privy to any VIP club passes that I wanted.

I went through the process of displaying my wrist several more times before reaching the top level. By the time I was done I felt like a suicidal teenager stuck in a mob of sickeningly helpful psychiatrists. Spotting Meiling talking with Chiharu, Takashi, and some older men I didn't recognize, I walked briskly over to them.

Interrupting at the first chance, which was fairly easy, considering the fact that Meiling stopped her conversation the moment she saw me, I politely requested to speak with her. Tugging Meiling away gently and nodding regally, as if I were important, to the men, I left two puzzled friends to excuse us further. Meiling walked with me over to an empty couch on the very edge of the circle away from the snobs gathered in the middle and waited expectantly, raising her eyebrows, unfazed by my somewhat disheveled appearance.

"Sorry. I met up with a few of the Scarred after me, Rika, and Terada raided their gun stash. They didn't know what I had done of course, but I was in their territory and Eriol and Li were there. I was alone because Terada and Rika had left, and you know that I'm their favorite person to play with… well aside from Sakura anyway. So I had to kick some guy in the balls and run. Thank Shadow they weren't expecting me or he'd've been wearing at least a cup.

A/N: Shadow is the Clow of surprises and tricks, I dunno I couldn't really think of anything better. I'm trying to substitute the clow cards for kami's, or gods. Tell me if its really not working…

I got pretty far ahead because I lost them temporarily, but those two spotted me when I was getting up to the connecting roofs outside South Plaza. I was still a ways ahead, but they managed to gain a lot of ground. Thank Maze only those two found me. Anyway, then I remembered your new club and Voila! God has been kind. I promise it won't get messy, but I told Sammi down front not to detain them after they paid a lot."

Meiling looked at me sympathetically and said, "That's right. You promised Daidoji-sama no fights till tomorrow so you can go without bruises to exhibit a design at that premier tomorrow night. I remember her complaining about that last time when a reporter saw bruises where someone had grabbed you around the neck, and it took treating them to a coffee and explaining that you were trained in martial arts for… what was it? Oh yes, 'Ladylike Self Defense', and that your sparring partner had won or something. Hahahaha! She was so freaked because she thought they were gonna investigate your parentage and see if you were abused. Good thing she convinced the reporter there wasn't a story. They were dying to get one on you too, ever since you began to hang out with her a lot in public. Ok, so back to business. All the guns left are disabled, right? And Rika and Terada left with the ammo and the good ones?" She switched gears quickly, remembering what I had originally most likely come for. I had said I'd give her a call later that night, but I suppose she thought I'd come to check out her club even earlier than I'd originally said. Past eleven thirty or so was when the real parties began, anyway. Before that Meiling was likely to be doing business. Past one even she would just be partying.

"Yeah, up to them catching me everything went smoothly. Minus one guy we knocked out and tied up and gagged and stuff. But he should be out for a while. And he didn't see what we did or anything. And I wouldn't have listened to Sonomi, but I owe her money for fabric and this apparently 'pays off my debt', according to her." I said as I stretched my arms up to loosen them, "But why aren't Yuki, Yue, and Touya here? Normally, they hate missing openings…"

Meiling smiled wickedly when I mentioned her adopted brothers, both gang veterans, and Touya, Sakura's, or my best friend's, brother. Yukito and Yue were identical twins who dressed in completely different styles. Both the boys had been raised in a well-respected and sophisticated family, the sons of a famous actress who married a businessman, their father, late in life. Their parents, both old to have children, had died two years ago, one of a disease, and the father in a car accident as he received the news. The boys had been in school. They joined the gang Touya, their close friend then, belonged to and shortly after, the two became famous for their curious talents. (I mean really, to be Touya's closest friends, they would have to have skills worthy of his notice…). Not really gang, actually. More like a famous Japanese clan and the group of street people they enlisted to help with their war against the Li's and the other large Clan's, or Zaibatsu in the area. Meiling had made it her birthday present for her parents to adopt them, and her parents agreed, after hearing Yelen praise them at Meiling's birthday dinner.

A/N! For those of you who do not know what Zaibatsu are, they are basically Japanese families that own large companies that cover more than one product. Massive companies, whose net worth is insanely high, like Nissan, which doesn't just do cars, but a bunch of other stuff, and is a massive company run and owned mainly by one family. I guess for an American equivalent you could look at Ford, but I think they just do cars…-

Both the boys were very good fighters already, because the twins had been enrolled in different types of martial arts with Touya since first grade, which was where they had met. They had only begun school together in High School, however, with Yelen paying their private school tuitions.

Yukito had his father's almost cunning to nearly the point of being cruel, business outlook, but his mother's cheerful mannerisms. He could argue a deal around while still staying perfectly polite and cheerful, and maybe even get a free lunch by the time he was done. After Yukito had inadvertently attended a business dinner Yelen held which Touya had been invited to, and turned the deal around for her (and Yelen rarely needed help in business), she had insisted that he be taken under the clan's wing. Meiling enjoyed keeping Yukito around because her business always benefited from it.

Meiling's strong points, and what some might say were her only strong points, was her business mind, her fashionable sense, and her weapons fetish (often substituted with her striking looks, courtesy of her good family .), and since Yukito gave her competition in the first of these, Meiling was always happy to keep him around. She claimed she only liked him because the competition was good for her business, but we all know she can actually be a nice person.

Although Yue and Touya had better aims with guns, Yukito was the one who had excelled the most at their hand-to-hand combat. Not to say that the other two weren't good…

Yue took after his mother, but with his father's stony businessman face. An actor at heart, we all know he loves the assignments he receives, although he tends to complain about the things he was asked to do until he improved upon the idea. Yue, who kept his silver hair long, and I mean long, had a sort of respectful fondness for Chiharu's boyfriend Takashi. Yue had a fondness for weapons that rivaled Meiling's love for guns, and the two would often chat for hours about the latest weaponry that they were going to request for Christmas.

Takashi's extreme skills at lying and acting, which everyone had apparently discovered in elementary school during his performance as the witch in Sleeping Beauty, Chiharu had put to use soon after, had been toned quickly to be of use in real life. Chiharu couldn't ever stand Takashi, who she considered to be one of the best and brightest, (as she would often tell her parents when they were considering a richer match for her) wasting any skills he might have. Takashi often reminded her of the times she thought he was wasting his quick wits on useless lies that got him nowhere, which she apparently responded violently to when they were younger. On top of Takashi's acting ability, he wasn't afraid to cross-dress, which Yue strictly forbid anyone to try and convince him into. He thought that the long hair was enough, apparently.

"They're… relandscaping, should I say? It's punishment for blowing up the bathroom in the pool house again while trying to install that Jacuzzi with Touya. I did warn them… Are you sure you want to let Hiirigizawa and Li in? At the push of a button Sammi could have guards holding them at gunpoint." She answered, smirking at the thought of two large annoyances held still at the wrong end of a gun. Tsk, tsk, tsk, Meiling and her gun fetish. Personally I preferred chairs, or, better yet, something long and sharp. If it had to be violent anyway… my general preference in sticky situations was blackmail.

"Nah, its ok. Trust me on this, they know our rules, and they respect the fact that if they are let in, they're guests. We all know each other too well. Know thy enemies right? I just wanted to know where I could take them to talk. I also want to make absolutely sure they don't know what we did yet. Not to mention the fact that we absolutely need to know what happened to Kaho!" I replied, ending in a slightly more fierce tone when I mentioned the lady who had been in an arranged marriage with Touya.

"Hmm. Ok, I trust you, and plus, information on Kaho is vital. Touya may not care, but she's got the rest of us worried sick. Just ask the bartender, and she'll let you in a private room in the middle. Don't worry, I've had it soundproofed enough to keep a lot of the club music out, which'll definitely keep any words spoken inside." She told me quickly, glancing over at the man she had been speaking to earlier. "I've got to get back to Mr. Suzuke, he has issues with the design in the elevator, something about pregnant women might have problems… honestly what sane pregnant woman would come to one of my clubs. Anyway, I'll be in that room as soon as I can! Is there anyone you want me to send in with you? Two on one won't be too fun for you. Chiharu and Takashi aren't the only ones up here. Don't worry about identification 'cause Naoko wanted to work the bar 'till twelve, I think to flirt with that new guy, Fai, or whatever." I nodded and thanked her. Naoko, who had worked bars this summer in order to become more useful around the clubs and to have an excuse to go out to them as often as she liked (her parents weren't as carefree as some of ours), was still looking for a boyfriend. And when I say looking, I mean with a vengeance. Plus, Naoko had high standards that were difficult for any guy to meet. I would have to remember to meet this guy sometime.

"Well, is Sakura here?" I asked her, hoping she was. I knew we could more than deal with Syaoran and Eriol, seeing as how we were the two that clashed with them most often. Plus, she was someone that I fully trusted at my back in a fight. One of few, although that group of few had been growing uncomfortably quickly as of late. Unfortunately she hadn't been able to come with Rika, Terada, and I earlier because her mother had set up their summer wardrobe fittings.

"No, she's still with Nadeshiko on the other side of town. They were gonna come later. It's gonna turn into quite a party. But hey, Kero is in. He's a bartender tonight, but Naoko can spare him. I made sure to have a lot of people working tonight, so tell her I'm excusing him for his last two hours. Plus, he's prolly just in it for the free food and booze later on." She answered, beginning to speak even quicker. "I've really got to go now, and so do you, because I bet those guys have found their way up by now. Have fun. I'll be there in... oh, lets say twenty minutes. It's already eleven thirty." She waved and walked off in her spike heels, black hair done up as an intricate ponytail and swinging in time to her steps, her black skirt and the red sleeves hanging free past her elbows swinging in the opposite direction from her hair. Damn. Now that was a confident walk. I was so gonna need to work on mine. I stretched and slowly turned on my cushioned bench to survey the club beneath me.

I groaned as I heaved myself up off the seat and wearily walked down the platforms, shoving my way through the crowd to reach the bar. It had been too long since I had trained with the cross-country track team. Sighing, I relaxed into a seat and asked the worker nearest for Naoko, as I kept an eye on the elevators behind me using the mirror that covered the wall of the circular bar.

"Tomoyo! Damn good to see you. Ouch, look at you. Girly you look _tired_! You want a margarita, or something stronger?" Naoko yelled over the DJ, leaning closer as she grinned down at me from her awesome cat-eye contacts. Naoko, who according to Sakura had been as innocent as Sakura herself had used to be, and hated breaking the rules, had moved to Osaka for seventh and eighth grade, apparently coming back wild enough to deal with whatever her friends could throw. I wouldn't really know since I wasn't there, but after hearing stories of Naoko's good student and good girl self, which had apparently rivaled Chiharu's fear of breaking rules and Rika's wanting to please everyone, I was glad that they had all grown up so wild after such solid childhoods. (Please notice how any comment on Meiling's good childhood manners is ignored… Suffice to say, Meiling grew up playing with Touya. And rebelling occasionally with some girl who called herself Ruby… wow were those stories scary. I had never before thought that children could be evil. Of course it took pictures and videos to convince me… but that's another story).

"All I want now is something strong." I said in a low tone, "But unfortunately, to deal with the people that'll be walking up to me in a minute without Saku-chan I'll prolly need something that isn't alcoholic." I groaned, rubbing my head, and tying my hair back in a high ponytail, and tilting my head to look up at her. Although I was seated, it wasn't far. I was built to be taller, and Naoko, like Chiharu, was built to be smaller. Although Chiharu was built with more muscles and Naoko was built more like a ballet girl.

"You'll be wanting a green tea, right? It'll be ready in a minute, k?" I smiled up at the cheerful face framed by brown hair streaked tastefully with a more reddish shade that contrasted nicely with her chocolate eyes now streaked with green because of the cat-eyes. Naoko laughed when I yawned and nodded in response to her question, as she dropped a napkin wrapped around something into my lap. I smiled up at her as I unwrapped it. I found three beautiful mint chocolate cookies inside. Realizing how hungry I was I practically shoved the first one inside my mouth as Naoko went about making more drinks. When she put mine down in front of me, I held up a finger telling her to wait as I swallowed the mints. "And, as usual, it's on the house, this being Meiling's club and you only getting hot water and a tea bag and all…" she added, setting the tea bag down next to the tall glass of steaming water.

"Hey, I'm about to get that company I mentioned. I need to use the room in the middle, and Meiling said that I could borrow Kero for the rest of his shift. She said she overstaffed purposefully anyway. Is that ok?" I smiled apologetically as I told her I would be stealing away one of her workers.

"Ah, its cool. He's not being too much use anyway. Oh hey, here come your… guests. Or at least I assume the only reason they're here is cause of you. I'll go get Kero for you. He can let you in the room." As she hurried off around the circular bar to reach Kero, I sipped at my green tea, waiting for the two people Naoko had seen coming up behind me to make a move.

_**Yay! That's it for now, ya'll. I'd also appreciate comments on the length of my chapters... but don't feel like you have to give long reviews if you don't wanna. Just a word is cool! Like if you write: Fun! I'd be totally ecstatic with just ten of those. Ok, maybe not. **_

_**And, yes Nadeshiko is alive. Fujitaka, unfortunately, died, but if enough people ask, I may do a fic about all these people's parents and stuff. **_

_**Yes, Tomoyo did live with her Dad for most of her life with almost no contact with Sonomi. History: Sonomi couldn't leave the gang/pull away from the clan after she had Tomoyo due to difficult times, but Tomoyo's dad wanted her to live a normal life and after talking with Sonomi, left. **_

_**Li and Eriol obviously belong to the Li clan. Yelen's clan is the Clow clan. Except I may change it to Amamiya, Nadeshiko and Sonomi's maiden names. I appreciate any opinions on that as well. **_

_**I'll add to this section as I get reviews talking about confusing parts of the chapter**_

_**Times Edited so far due to things my kind reviewers have made clear: 2**_


	2. Gang Names, Useless Discussions, and New...

_Ok, so here's chapter number two! Please please review! I will love ya'll for life if you do!_

_I know the gang names that i put in this will get confusing, so at the end of each chapter after the first one I'll put who equals what gang name!_

_Disclaimer: If I were in CLAMP would I be stuck to just writing fanfiction about CCS? Nope, I didn't think so._

**Gang Names, Useless Discussions, and More Arrivals!**

They pulled up chairs beside me, Li Syaoran on the left and Li Eriol on the right, in unison, as I finished my tea.

Staring in the mirror just before they sat, I saw that Li was dressed as an eighty's punk, the way he had been dressed earlier, in a leather jacket and purposefully ripped t-shirt. His jeans were cut up, probably due to a fight, and not a designer. Eriol was dressed in a black long sleeved shirt over black jeans, new clothes.

I noticed that Eriol had his dark hair pulled back into a short ponytail, bangs hanging free, and Li had his shaggy to long brown hair left hanging. Eriol had been the one with the gun. Eriol would have been the one more likely to shoot me in such a situation. That was confusing.

Damn they knew each other too well. Like Sakura and I, after sitting down in unison they had begun the perfect routine of anticipating each other's movements. After they scooted the stool in, positioned their arms (that was different at least), they began to stare at me. I was certain they had felt extremely overly lucky when they found me without Sakura nearby. The only way I had managed to get away in the first place is because Li was looking around, as if wondering if she was actually not there. The fact that no one was with me was probably the only thing which kept them from being positive I had done something.

I continued staring straight ahead at the mirror, seeing my faces and theirs in the mirror across from us. Woody of sanity, if I kept looking at myself in reflections I was going to go insane.

Flicking one eye to the left to confirm that the person moving toward us was Kero I switched my gaze to Eriol's reflection and winked with my slightly-sexy-lazy-insane smile, which was actually just the one that I used when I was feeling too tired or in too much of a rush to use a full smile. It came out as half a smile, which made me look like some cat that was tired and far past being pleasant, ready to claw his eyes out if he didn't comply. Which was what I was going for, after all.

A.N: if you can imagine an older Tomoyo with the beginnings of a smile and her eyes narrowed a little bit, that's what I'm going for here.

"You'll want to follow him." I said, still looking at Eriol in the mirror, locked onto his blue eyes, as Kero stopped in front of us.

Eriol's reflection winked slightly suggestively back with a slight smile of his own, and stood. No surprises there. It was almost a game between us when we met up. Life was a game to us, that both of us wanted to win. It was more serious when Sakura and Li were talking because they both got pissed at each other quickly, even though Eriol and I were probably more cold-blooded.

Li would be the wildcard tonight. Usually I left him to Sakura, who had a natural feel, I guess you could call it, to him. Normally I could read anyone well, but in Syaoran and Eriol's family the relatives took extra precautions to be sure their kids were unreadable, so that no one could even understand them much, much less have a guess at what they'd do next. I could just barely guess with Eriol, and that was only cause I had a sort of knowing for how he worked, which was similar to the way my head did. I didn't even want to think about what Li went through for 'training' as a child that would lock him up so tight. It happened more naturally in the family I was a part of. We learned to hide our emotions, or work with our feelings. Anyway, Kero was the next best choice to me bringing Sakura in the room because he reacted quicker and better than most. Even Li may not be able to match Kero's reflexes.

Kero was basically a dancer (one of the strait ones if you can believe it), gamer, and a fanboy. That pretty much covered his personality. Obsessed with video games and Anime and Manga, he cares about not much else aside from his sorry attempts at writing fanfiction, and history. Yes, surprisingly enough, history. His talent at writing AP history essays did not, unfortunately for his online readers, transfer to his fanfics. My comment after reading his last was that they were all ideas and no development.

Kero, of course, knew how to use a gun, was a notoriously horrible shooter unless placed under extreme pressure, and would take any bet. Yelan, according to word of mouth, after a young Kero had been angry to hear he had to enroll in some kind of martial art, had found him a private tutor in Tai'chi, which he loved for the grace and rhythm. It wasn't that Kero didn't feed off of aggressiveness; his bet fetish was proof of that. He didn't think the balance in any other martial art was quite right, was all.

Summing up Kero's week would look something like: Dance, Tai'Chi, Gaming, History homework, Watching the Anime that taped, Reading Manga, Writing and reading fanfiction, and possibly getting his writing class work done before school in the mornings. That was his life, week in week out, on a normal schedule. Well, his week minus the weekends. He did all of that minus the history and writing, plus club and family stuff on weekends.

Kero opened a door in the side of the bar a few chairs away and motioned for us to move through it. Li, sliding out of his chair and approaching the opening in the bar counter, stopped just before it and motioned to me.

"Ladies first." He said with a flourish of the arm, looking straight at me the entire time. To test my resilience? Raising my eyebrows slightly I stepped through with all the dignity I had the energy for with his eyes digging into my neck, flipping my ponytail slightly as I did. Reaching for the door that opened out of the mirror, I saw Eriol roll his eyes and pull Li through first when Li made the same motions, without the words, for him. Just before opening it and walking through I heard Kero mutter softly to me, "Thanks for asking, Tomoyo-chan. I just don't know how I could have survived the night without seeing these two perfect little darlings", his voice rife with sarcasm.

Snorting softly, I didn't pause at all when the lights, motion sensitive, turned on immediately. Seating myself on a black leather couch on the far side of the room, I scanned the room as the rest entered and seated themselves.

It was all dark colors, with an assortment of chairs and couches spiraling around the room. I was seated in the center, where four couches formed a square. Across from me was Eriol. To my right was Kero, and to my left was Li. I sighed heavily in exasperation at having to deal with this tonight. I normally jumped at an opportunity to talk to any well-known Scarred in one of our clubs, but I was exhausted tonight and wanted to rest before I partied later. (If you haven't noticed, we refer to them as the Scarred. It's the name of the small gang Li and Eriol began when they were in middle school, just a small group of fighters they new. It grew a little, became intertwined with the lower workings of the Li Zaibatsu, and was basically Li and Eriol's core group.)

A.N: in case you can't tell the Scarred is sort of a gang Li and Eriol belong to. Tomoyo would only refer to them as The Scarred if Li and Eriol were with street people. It is part of the clan, but for the people that aren't really family, or rich enough to be considered part of the business side. Its more like the Li's have been using them for their own purposes, rather than just letting them graffiti all over the city, now that Li and Eriol's group has grown. Hopefully this'll become clearer later on! And they do fight against normal gangs. The Amamiya and the Li family's, plus other Zaibatsu, have been creating gangs for the purpose of holding off the other gangs in Tokyo.

'Oh well,' I thought, 'I'll just have to drink it off', grinning despite myself.

I looked to Kero for reassurance and he smiled, knowing how tired I must be after going a week without being able to fight. It had actually been much harder having to run from everything, although I managed to turn it into a form of teasing. When I realized his expression was laughing at me I rolled my eyes and tilted my head away from his blue-green gaze. Kero was one of my close friends, along with Sakura. Although his parents are dead of cancer (heavy smokers), he is the nephew of Yelan Amamiya, Sakura's and my aunt, making him our cousin, although he doesn't resemble Yelan at all. He has sandy blonde hair with blue-green eyes and tan skin, while Yelen has pitch-black hair, like mine except no trace of the softening grays, with icy blue eyes and a strong but beautiful Asian face. She is like ice in almost everything she does, but occasionally, surprisingly, she can be amazingly warm. She is really his mother figure, because his parents didn't care for him much, especially when he began to take after Yelan. They were more snobbish and less reckless.

A.N: The Amamiya Zaibatsu (Sakura and Tomoyo's) is more a fashion industry centered one, although I'm going to have Yelan controlling some major branch outside of that. Four major Zaibatsu in Tokyo are sort of at war right now… and they are sort of using gangs… The leader of the Li Zaibatsu, Li and Eriol's uncle, is going to be more of a businessman.

"So, what exactly were you thinking about discussing with us… **_Amaya_**?" Li asked, leaning forward with raised brows.

I nearly flinched at the emphasis put on my gang name. Of course I knew their gang names too, but since they're so well-known not many people aside from Scarred use them. Xiao Lang and Fang-Lei. What scared me more is that I knew they wanted to know my real one. My gang name, Amaya, meant night rain. It reminded me of my first night out with Sakura, on the way home from a club at three in the morning, when it was raining softly and we stopped the car and danced in a park under the rain.

Gang names always meant something. Xiao Lang was Syaoran's name in Chinese, for instance, or little wolf. Eriol's, Fang-Lei, was Chinese for wind's thunder -A/N: I actually just combined Fang, which means wind, with Lei, which means thunder, and hoped it would work….-.

I heard that Yelen's was once Kisaki, meaning empress or queen. Sonomi, my mother's, is Kimi, meaning she who is without equal. I had heard once that my father gave her the name for the way her demeanor makes her seem to be above others. That was before they separated.

Sakura's mother Nadeshiko's gang name is Kioko, or meets the world with happiness. Her mother keeps smiling no matter what happens, and even during fights. Smiling is just a natural expression to her. I have heard that it was extremely unnerving to many, although her deceased husband was apparently the same way. If any other adults I know that are friends of the three sisters ever had gang names, I don't know of them.

As for the new generation, Meiling's, which is Naomi, means above all, or beauty. Her childhood nickname was Leiko though, for arrogance, which we still call her when teasing her. Sakura's, Ying Fa, is the Chinese version of her name. Sakura and my friend, Rika, who's best friends with Chiharu and Naoko, uses Maemi, meaning smile of truth. Rika can only smile at friends. No matter how hard she tries, if she doesn't like a person, she is incapable of smiling. If she didn't look naturally bitchy whenever she was around people she didn't like, it would have been horrible for her whenever she's sent into another gang's territory. Fortunately, it wasn't as if they were asking her to smile. Naoko's name is Shina, a joke from us because it means virtue, or good, and Naoko is unusually cautious about breaking rules, even though she's capable of ignoring laws when she feels like it. Chiharu was given her name by Takashi, her boyfriend since kindergarten, which is Takara, meaning treasure or precious object. They had an arranged marriage, but it was set up after the parents saw how well the children got along.

Takashi himself chose Loki, which is the name of the Norse god of trickery. Takashi is infamous for his brilliant lies. He and Kero often team up to perform pranks, because Takashi's passion for lie's mixes with Kero's passion for bets. Kero had chosen Ta'Ziyah, or passionate soul in African from Ghana, because he is overly passionate about everything. He loves sweets, he loves video games, he loves fighting, he loves dancing, he loves girls, and he loves drinks.

Touya, Sakura's brother, famed for his stubbornness, had chosen Kisho, or one who knows his own mind. Yukito, the younger of the twins that were always hanging out with Touya, used Yasashiku, meaning gentle and polite. Yukito was polite to the point of being painful, and he always chose his words carefully. Yue used Shusekihanji, or chief judge, because it was in his nature to judge people. And, he was always correct. I have never seen or heard of him judging a person incorrectly. He could deliver stunningly cruel critics at times. Sometimes, as a joke, I tack on -Sai to the end of his name, it being the suffix for judge. Even Sakura trusted Yue's judgement, and Sakura normally wouldn't listen if someone told her that a person was no good. Sakura liked to trust people. He could never analyze himself, but he knew people's faults without realizing it. Sometimes it was as if he had to say it out loud to realize.

Anyone who had ever seen the three of them fight together saw an interesting sight. Between Touya's continuous and unrelenting fighting style (Sakura's brother liked to pound through everything, which he was quite capable of doing), Yukito's style of dodging everything until he found a way to knock his opponent out (out of politeness, you see), and Yue's even shorter and harsher use of any of his opponents' weak points, any even minor scuffle one could observe could be either highly entertaining or highly educational.

A/N: In Japan, they tack on suffixes to the ends of names. I only refer to it or use them here when it's important to show a relationship. For example –Chan is very informal and usually only used between close female friends past certain ages. –Sama is more respectful. If you're really confused tack it onto a review and I'll explain thoroughly at the end or beginning of the next chapter, but most CCS fans should know about these. –Sai is an unusual one though. It is what I will tack onto Yue's when other characters are talking or joking with him. It is the suffix someone uses when speaking to a judge.

Still on my guard from Li's all too obvious stress on the only name he knew to use on me, I prayed that all Clow, would help me the day Li discovers who I am. Which could be soon, unfortunately. I am almost positive he'd switch schools just to aggravate me, even though even Eriol and Li wouldn't be stupid enough to begin any real fights with me at the school I'd be attending come the new semester. Eriol would too, of course. He just wouldn't be so obvious about why. Li would do it just to make up for all the endless frustrations I'd put him through these past months. Suffice to say, Li is fun to frustrate, because you can tell it happens so little. He had actually challenged my creativity, being so difficult to annoy. Of course, I had tried Eriol's patience as well, but it was apparently endless. I figured if I trained on Li, I could move on to Eriol.

Good for me that my new life with Sonomi, who covered the fact that she had had a child at a very indecent age who ended up living with its father whom she hadn't married, with an adoption story that was actually plausible considering my recently deceased father had no family, hadn't had its press meeting yet.

Up until now all that the public has known is that I was a stranger to the press who suddenly moved in with Sonomi just in time to design some clothes for a new line that would debut in Milan soon. (No, that isn't the same show as the one I mentioned previously, it's coming up later…) Once her paperwork is all filled out and everything is legal, she is planning to tell the press who I really am. It will be just in time for the second semester of my junior year in high school. Thank goodness that my father had started me in school a year early, tutoring me to pass a test to test out of kindergarten at an early age. It had been so that I could join an accelerated program the school he taught at was going to test out on a few years, that one being the last.

Because of the year ahead and the accelerated program at a normal school, I was able to meet my mother over the summer, working with her the entire break to keep me away from the press, and then begin a social life with her to learn how to cope for a whole semester. All that hard work had only bought me a semester without school though, because of how difficult the prep school Sonomi was sending me to was. Now, however, I would begin attending the school that Sakura, Chiharu, Rika, Naoko, Takashi, and Kero all attended. Meiling, Yue, Yukito, and Touya were all out of school already, Touya by only a year. So, as of yet, Eriol and Li had no way of knowing who I was, since in public all I was referred to as was Amaya-san, occasionally with different endings. We had told the press that it was a nickname, which it is.

But soon both my identity and my name would come out. And then Eriol and Li would be more than willing to have fun with it to make up for the frustrations of not being able to discover where I live or even attend school. The others had been around their entire lives, and weren't worth switching schools for. But since ours was the best in Tokyo aside from the one they attended, and they would be switching to one that some of their relatives already attended, not to mention the added bonus of Sakura and the others being there to keep the day… interesting… I had no doubts that they would change schools.

Since I had come, apparently, the stress between Zaibatsu had been particularly high. Plus I knew that other children of Zaibatsu families attended that school, so I was sure it was interesting, what with all of the rivalry and all.

I had been lucky enough to find out about the Li clan relatives the day I went to pick Sakura up from school. The tall senior named Nakuru had dragged Spinel, a short spiky-haired junior who had, according to Sakura, gone crazy after eating a lollipop and begun cussing out Chiharu, who yelled right back, away from us muttering that she wished Li at least would change schools to deal with the problems.

With all the added pressure, this was one area in which the two boys would be too predictable. To many it would seem a stretch if I had mentioned the fact that I thought they would switch, but I had wondered after Sakura mentioned there was some disagreement over Li and Eriol's choice of schools a few years back that drove the Scarred away from the Zaibatsu for a few months. Apparently it had seemed that the boys had won, but the tension was still there. Since then some of their relatives, as well as some of their friends switched. The only reason I could find out for them staying was that some of the Scarred attended on scholarships. Since the fight two Scarred's scholarships had been canceled. I had assumed this was from pressure by the Li's in order to convince their inheritor, Li Syaoran, and the king of manipulation, and the second heir Hiirigizawa himself, to attend Tokyo's finest establishment. Of course I doubt the school had known they'd be losing the Li's support. In fact I had no doubt that Li and Eriol would see to it that the money went back into those Scarred's scholarships after they left.

Suffice to say I was quite sure and quite depressed about other new students in the sophomore spring semester of school at Tokyo Clow Academy.

"Hmm, since Li was so gracious as to begin a conversation, why don't we kill time chatting until Naomi arrives? Any questions? I could give you a verbal tour of this club. Or, actually Ta'Ziyah could." I responded in a bored tone after a little bit of a pause.

"I've got an idea." Eriol said noncommittally. "Why don't you explain to us what you were doing on our turf? It would provide an interesting conversation. You can frustrate Xiao Lang with real answers that mean nothing and lead us into a completely different subject and when he's about to jump up and leave I can ask you again. Maybe if I'm lucky I could get one real fact out of you and we can repeat the entire cycle a few times."

"Oh fun. Like we haven't done that before." I grinned back. "You don't have anything better to ask me about?"

"What are you expecting Amaya, truth or dare?" Kero, or Ta'Ziyah,grinning back to me.

"How about this then?" Eriol, or Fang-Lei, said abruptly, far more serious this time, "Who are you? You just showed up suddenly. First we here you were living with Sonomi Daidoji, designing new spring themes over the summer. Then you begin living with her, are seen hanging out with some of the richest women in the city, and continuously begin to run into us. You give us a few scars, do things Kisaki, also known as Yelen Li, used to only trust Kimi or Kioko, alias' Sonomi Daidoji and Nadeshiko Kinomoto, with. Not to mention the fact that not only did you get that far into such a tightly knit group of high-class people so suddenly, but you also know all of the people the Kisaki likes to… work… with that aren't rich or family. And, of course they all know you. The press hasn't even been able to get anything on you. There has to be interesting history here. And have I mentioned the fact that its obvious you're well educated and yet aren't yet enrolled in either of the two schools in this city Sonomi Daidoji would allow you to be educated in. Plus you claim to be seventeen, you've been living with Sonomi Daidoji, helping her design even, and have not been to school completely legally for an entire semester. And no matter how much my favorite hacker digs he can't find out anything about you. Please share. I'm dying to know more than just what you told us to call you."

Removing the arm I had slung over Kero's shoulders during Eriol's speech, which I used to physically restrain Kero from jumping Eriol, I checked my watch. Seeing how late it was, (it was almost to twelve already), I looked over toward Eriol and smiled. Not just a normal smile, but the one I used on him the time I almost dragged a knife through his gut and down across his nuts, knowing that he'd definitely remember it. (And no, the attack never went through. We were at a stalemate, because Syaoran had a gun pointed at Sakura's head).

"Alright, how about this. I'll give you one guess. If you are correct in your guess, rather than submitting you to a behind the lines grilling from Meiling, who enjoys watching you both squirm and likes you even better behind guns she is holding, I'll let ya'll out into the club to dance. You two will accompany Sakura and I all day, including during the Premier of Without Hope, Lost in Love, the new romance movie, and then we'll decide what to do next. Sonomi has been trying to find a proper way to get me to the premier. I wasn't really invited and there isn't anyone yet that I can accompany. So, that's my proposition. And, of course, afterwards you two and Sakura and I can discuss any matters we wish to on neutral ground."

Kero, turning to me like I was insane, murmured loudly, "My, my, what an interesting two days this will be. You're giving up a huge advantage, by the way."

"Not days, Ta'Ziyah-chan, day", I responded in a sugary-cute tone, showing him my watch. "Its Saturday already. And they know I'm not, because I owe Eriol for not shooting me today while we were running. There was a point he could get a shot off during but he didn't take it. I want to know why."

The Scarred, who had been arguing softly over this deal as I finished speaking with Kero, turned back to us.

"Well," remarked Eriol, who seemed to be doing all the talking today, "I'd say dancing's better than facing Amaya-san and Meiling-san's wrath at the same time. Even a romance movie is. And we'll get a chance to see the lovely Sakura-san again. How can we pass this up? Plus if this works Syaoran doesn't have to attend the premier with Nakuru. And I don't have to go with one of his sisters…Soooo..., my guess is that Sonomi is related to you by blood."

I leaned back in my chair, slightly impressed, but expecting it nonetheless. I shrugged in a noncommittal way and said, "I'm sorry boys, but that's a little too vague..."

"Not if she's your mother its not" added Eriol, grinning like a very satisfied version of Satan.

I did raise my eyebrows at that guess. I hadn't expected him to be quite that sure about it. Nodding at them, Eriol began to rise from his chair, Li mirroring his movements with a slight smirk.

Or they were rising from their chairs, until the sound of Meiling entering the door made them pause and reseat themselves.

Seeing them exchange glances as Meiling had entered made me laugh hysterically in my head. Meiling's wrath was almost legendary in Tokyo, especially toward the Scarred, and even charming Eriol was no exception. I continued to wonder how the press ever managed to stay alive around her, but, surprisingly, she didn't mind them. Taking advantage of the momentary silence as Meiling seated herself comfortably, mock whispering to me that this better not take too much longer, I said one last thing.

"Don't worry Naomi, we're just about finished up. Oh, but Eriol-kun. Do remember that if you try to leave, and you won't be able to anyway because I'll be watching you both the entire night, I will chase you and I will page the bouncers and staff to shoot you. I don't think even you two could pull that off, not with me chasing you. Plus you never know where I could find a gun. So don't even think about it." I kept a bland and pleasant polite face on while I delivered this information, receiving no reaction until Li responded.

"To keep you from worrying about our well-being, Amaya-_san_," He began, mocking Eriol's overly polite style, "why doesn't Eriol dance with you? So you don't appear to be a stalker? We wouldn't want to ruin your image after all." He smiled as he said this, almost scaring me half to death. Li never smiles. If he had smiled in any other location, I would have responded violently, or turned and run it was so scary. I guess Li doesn't respond well to threats when he's in such an uncomfortable position already. God, the smile had already silenced Meiling, who had been ready to interrupt him halfway through his comment. Maybe he just didn't want to deal with Meiling tonight.

"I'm afraid I'll have to decline." I apologized gracefully, although not fully recovered from the shock. "I couldn't possibly dream of leaving you without a partner out there, and Sakura isn't here yet, Li-san. You'd be so unendingly lonely." Giving them a sincere look, I began to rise again as the sound of her cell phone silenced another beginning of a protest from Meiling.

"Oh, Amaya, its from Sakura!" She exclaimed as she checked the text message, "She's on her way up and she says that she's feeling like going extremely wild and drunk and crazy so you better be prepared to dance! Hey, Li looks like you won't be lonely. But can you handle a Sakura that's been cooped up in a fitting room all day trying on various types of clothes for this summer's wardrobe? She's going to be so ready to pull a gun on someone." Meiling grinned evilly and then suddenly turned to Kero. "Yo, Ta'Ziyah, why don't you go bring her here to meet her dancing partner, while I get briefed. Oh, and Amaya, she's very upset that you're phone isn't on, seeing as how she tried to call you." As Kero left, Meiling began to pull the pins out of her hair, messing it up with her hands to get her hair into the wild and messy condition mine had been in after my jog down the city. She stared in a hard way at Li and Eriol and said in a scary voice, "You two are going to sit there while my darling little Amaya tells me exactly what your deal is. If you try to move even your mouths I am going to shoot you both before you can even begin to explain why your fingers twitched." Turning her startlingly red eyes, which matched her Spanish style shirt, back to me she smiled nicely and asked, "Now what is it that you all have worked out, hmm? Oh, and don't worry about them being able to get out. If you haven't remembered by now, practically all of us are gonna be here. Yelen couldn't make it because she's going to a meeting till two and then crashing, but Nadeshiko's gonna be singing with the band coming in soon and then she'll be at the bar till your mom gets here, prolly around three. I'll ask her to keep an eye on them till three or so. That's when she'll start partying so you prolly wanna watch them carefully starting around two fifty."

"Why two fifty specifically?" I interrupted, and Meiling replied easily.

"Oh, she'll mix drinks to loosen herself up a little about five minutes before she starts dancing. Not enough to make her sick later, just enough to not care Sakura's in the same club. I swear, they're practically sisters anyway, don't you think?" I rolled my eyes. Trust Meiling to know the exact habits of anyone attending her club. It was already as if I had divided the night into different shifts for people to keep an eye on our…prisoners of war, I suppose I could call them. Looking over to the boys, I saw that Li had just rolled his eyes a little for fear of being shot. Eriol was particularly amused by Meiling's exact account of just one person's normal night at one of her clubs. Well not just any regular person, since Nadeshiko performed a lot at Meiling's places. Nadeshiko was mainly my mother's top model, but she had a great singing voice too. Apparently I got my voice from hers. It was too bad Sakura couldn't sing worth a crap. She could dance damn well though.

"Ok, so tell me what happened before Sakura gets here." Meiling said, pushing my shoulder impatiently, "Cause I'm itching to dance and you can explain to Sakura while she grabs herself two tequila shots to shake herself up."

"Two Tequila shots? Really Meiling, are you slipping or just getting old? She usually just mixes a bunch of caffeinated drinks to last the entire night minus water stops." I laughed.

"Hello? She was with your mother all day putting together a summer wardrobe. She doesn't need more than one. She's almost gone as is, I bet. Now tell me!" Meiling demanded.

I didn't need anymore prodding. Giving her a rundown of our brief conversation, which had been surprisingly anticlimactic thanks to my mother's no fighting rule, I quickly finished.

Meiling nodded, not surprised, and turned her head as Kero and Sakura entered the room, preceded by a soft knock. To my surprise, Rika, Terada-kun, Chiharu, and Takashi accompanied them. The party was starting.

_Gang Name Index:_

_Tomoyo: Amaya Sakura: Ying Fa Eriol: Fang-lei Syaoran: Xiao Lang Sonomi: Kimi _

_Yelen: Kisaki Nadeshiko:Kioko Meiling: Naomi (nickname Leiko meaning arrogance) _

_Rika: Maemi Chiharu: Takara Naoko: Shina Kero: Ta'Ziyah Takashi: Loki Touya:Kisho _

_Yukito: Yasashiku Yue: Shusekihanji _


	3. Interesting Plans, A Change of Clothes, ...

_All right, here's for my reviewers so far, and btw, I'm soooo glad ya'll liked it! _

_Oh, and thanks so much SakuyaBlossom, you are so right, I'm changing Sakura's to Ying Fa! I totally spaced out about that, which is actually something I meant to do when I was planning this story out, because I've always wanted to call her that._

_Any comments on the clan Yelen leads being the Clow clan? No one would prefer Amamiya, would they? I was just curious because I liked both, but lately am thinking Amamiya sounds better. Only thing is Amamiya is Sonomi's and Nadeshiko's maiden names, but not Yelen's!_

_And oh my gosh, Trigemini I love your fic, Dangerous Love, the gang one about Sakura and Syaoran and stuff. It's so fun to read and I love your twists, like with Touya, and how Yukito is really protective now! And how some Pantera's still expect her to lead! Ok, this isn't really the place to gush about that, I guess, hehe… Anyway thanks for reviewing! OK! Lets go!_

**Interesting Plans, A Change of Clothes, and Some Dancing!**

Sakura, or should I say Ying Fa (Cherry Blossom/Sakura in Chinese), was dressed in my latest design (she always wears my designs to an opening night) on my insistence. The dark green silk top that reached to just under her chest had a square neckline, cut not too low thanks to the top's shortness, and was long-sleeved due to the sheer material attached to the silk at the shoulder (basically, it would have been sleeveless but the sleeves are sheer). The embroidery was a much lighter green and hot pink in a series of cherry blossom petals, the petals being outlined in pink and connected by pink threads and filled in by the lighter green. The colors in the shirt accented her gorgeous light emerald eyes, bringing an even more exotic look than usually to her face, which, already slightly pointed and thin, now gave her the look of a Faerie.

Her glittering leafy eye shadow, blended with heavier powdered black eyeliner, made her look into something ethereal and not just exotic, poking out a little too far past her eyes to achieve a 'club' look. The darker than normal shade of blush that lined her cheekbones helped her entire face achieve a dusky look. She was wearing studs alternating green and pink, three in the left ear, two in the right, with one gold one high up at the top of her right. On her lips was a sort of rose color glossed in a metallic light pink.

With her black stone-washed designer jeans (my designer jeans!) set low on her hips, embroidered up both sides of the calves and the tops of the thighs in green and pink dragons, with one wing on each side of the seat of the pants, she looked perfect. Her hair was still a series of little curlicues from the series of little braids she had held it in for the two days prior to this night, and her shoes were cute little pink and green heels, not that high off of the ground. All in all, Sakura looked at hot as she always did, which wasn't just by my effort, either. Sakura definitely enjoyed looking good.

In respect to the fact that I always forced her into my outfits for clubs, I tried to vary the style as much as possible, going for not just one look as many designers do. But I always included Sakura petals in the outfits. I was planning on releasing the entire set as a line entitled 'Sakura Blossoms' next year, for my first original line, with Sakura as the head model, which was sure to get it good press, considering her mother's reputation.

After skimming Sakura's outfit to be sure it fit correctly, which of course it did, I turned to my other friends. Rika was dressed in an extremely skimpy silk pale pink dress trimmed in white over leather pants styled as jeans. Chiharu was sporting a baby blue sleeveless scoop-neck top made out of a stretchy material that had two ties at opposite sides of the hem (not in the front or back, just to her left and right) that she had attached to the loops of her gray stretchy dance pants, which, like Rika's, were styled to look like jeans. Both girls were dressed in some kind of high heels, probably boots, Rika's white and Chiharu's blue. Chiharu had braided blue and gray ribbons into her hair and cut the braids into half their usual length tying them off early, letting curly hair hang loose for a few inches past her shoulders. Rika's hair, almost waist-length now, which was a rich red-brown, had a natural crimp Rika knew not to mess with. Her hair hung naturally minus the top, which, past her bangs, was done in the beginnings of cornrows a few inches back, with the rest of her hair hanging free.

–A/N, you know that stuff that you can get done in the Bahamas or Disney World-

Takashi and Yoshiyuki Terada, Chiharu and Rika's boyfriends, decided to go for a more punk look. Takashi was dressed in shredded jeans with a white wife beater and a black leather jacket. Takashi was one of those teenagers who was built a little too thin, but tall enough to make up for it (Kero is built similarly, but without some of the height, and his muscles were more defined from all of the dancing he does). Terada (he prefers going by his last name), was dressed in massive cargo jeans which went tighter around his waist, although still low-slung, and a short sleeved muscle tee with a brand name on the front. Terada's hair was spiked all over the place in a really hot way, and Takashi's darker hair was naturally messy and cute, the kind of hair you know will feel soft if you touch it. Terada, an Olympic level swimmer, was about five years old for Rika, but Rika was so mature that hardly anyone ever commented. Rika had always dated up anyway, sometimes in larger age gaps than this.

Rising from my chair, I smiled and said, "Sakura, I believe I may have actually outdone myself on that one. I definitely need a camera here right now! I don't think I want anyone else to have access to the shirt design after this! I'm seriously considering pulling it out of my debut. Or I would be, if I weren't so proud of it!" I teased lightly. "And you won't believe the deal I struck to get you out of going alone or with your over-protective brother to the premier. Rika, Chiharu, Takashi, Terada, you all look fabulous. You're putting me to shame. I'm thinking of just drinking the night away, but I'd certainly start a fight, and ruin my deal with Sonomi…" I trailed off, pouting slightly, and talking a little too cheerfully to relieve the tension the Scarred caused.

Chiharu grinned as I spoke and when my voice died she motioned at Rika, who reached back through the door to pull a bag out that was stashed out of my view.

"See," commented Rika, as she smiled sweetly and handed me the bag, "This is why its so nice to have friends that are willing to call up other friends who haven't left their house yet because they always leave late to bring you something that fits. I figured that my knee-high girl's combat boots and my silk black cargo's would match the shirt Chiharu described to me, and that all you'd need aside from that would be supplied by the makeup box, yes box not bag, Naoko brought to use after she bartends. We figured you can handle no jacket, since even if you flipped yours inside out, the silk flip-side might clash with the pants. Maybe you can pull it off though." Still smiling, she handed me the Louis Vitton backpack and made shooing motions with her hands. Finishing off teasingly, she said, "Go on, Amaya-chan. Meiling and Kero can explain to us what's going on! We don't want you to ruin your image." Laughing I hugged Rika and Chiharu fiercely, and, seeing that they had already dropped Naoko's travel makeup kit in the bag, I waved and walked out.

After consulting with the nearest waiter on the location of the bathroom, I exited the main room into a luxurious Women's powder and restroom. It was very modern and slightly cold with lots of counter and sink space, and a massive mirror. Jumping into one of the stalls to change into Rika's clothes, which were obviously chosen to match my shirt and jacket, which, turned inside out, was a purple silk trench coat with a black embroidered flower on the back, I emerged much more confident. Pulling out some eye shadow of Naoko's I preceded to apply some black with a thin brush that turned my smudged eyeliner into a thicker and more catlike outline of my eyes. This merged with the gray and then white powders I chose to mix past that with Naoko's blending brush. Finally achieving the proper smoky effect, which accented my hair and eyes, I chose one of Naoko's paler blushes to use on my high cheek bones, not only because they were naturally shadowed, but also because of my lighter skin tone. Putting on a dark shade of pink lipstick, I tied my hair back into a high half ponytail, reversed my jacket because I knew it would look ok despite the silk on silk, and tied a black ribbon I had found in the back of Naoko's case around my neck. After throwing on some odorless deoderant and spraying myself with a nice scent, feeling a little bit more worthy of the club I was in, I headed back towards the center of the room, and towards the interesting situation I had been placed in.

Reaching the room, I opened the door to a series of intimidating smiles being sent toward Li and Eriol by the girls and Takashi (Terada opted for the stony glare, although it wasn't as fierce as Li's normal face), who were, respectively, ignoring them or smiling benignly back towards them. Kero was the only one not looking threatening, as he was laughing at the two's situation inside too much to bother appearing a threat.

"Hello! Did you miss me while I was gone?" I asked upon entering the room, raising my eyebrows immediately at the scene I walked in on.

"Konnichiwa, Amaya-hime," Began Eriol in a style even more charming, which I correctly interpreted as his dangerous mood, "Might I say you look even more stunning now than previously? Your friends were just informing us on the limits of the deal you've made. They're being remarkably strict. I thought you might like to tell them how simple you actually made the deal we agreed to? And possibly inform the more… impatient ones of your reasons behind the reasoning?" He inquired this in such a polite tone that was accompanied by such a fierce glare by Li that I knew Meiling had been testing their limits. I knew Eriol's patience was fine, but Li's was not, which due to the situation, would be stressing out Eriol, who was worried for Li. I smiled at him, mirroring his own to let him know that I was no safer than any of the others in this room, and turned to my friends.

"Fortunately, and most graciously, Eriol and Li have agreed to accompany Sakura and myself to the premier so that I do not have to tag along with Sakura, attracting unwanted press desperate for a story. They will spend every minute between the premier and now monitored by Sakura and myself, and after the premier Sakura and I will have a friendly business discussion with them. Eriol was curiously lenient earlier tonight, and he and Li will no doubt lose family status after a deal such as this, which will hardly affect Sakura and I. So, in truth, we did receive the better end of the deal." Meiling and Sakura's looks told me that I would have questions to answer later, but Chiharu and Rika looked satisfied. All four of them had heard enough stories of how the Li clan raised their children to know that the family comment was true. Plus, they knew about what I had not mentioned. I knew they were all thinking of Kaho's disappearance at that moment. Takashi looked slightly skeptical, but Terada didn't know enough to really have a good idea, which he knew, so after seeing Rika slightly more reassured, he stood.

"Well Rika, why don't you and I go inform Naoko of tonight's events?" He questioned smiling down at her. As she stood, Chiharu spoke.

"Ahh, only five hours before Takashi has to get me home! We're going to start dancing, ok? Kiro, Meiling, want to come? Unless Meiling still has business?" Chiharu said in a rush, slowing down just enough to be polite as she dragged Takashi up from his seat.

Meiling, looking slightly thoughtful, pulled Kero up from his seat as well and smiled at Chiharu. "Yeah, I feel like dancing after all that tension. Come on, Ta'Ziyah, I need someone who can keep up!" Calling back to us as she stepped toward the door and flipping her hair she spoke louder, "I think those other two hotties have been taken!"

Sakura, snorting at Meiling's flirting attitude, which was impossible for Meiling to keep hidden for long, looked toward the boys, addressing them for the first time since I entered the room. As she spoke I perched myself on the arm of a couch.

"More like I'm sick of going through people who can't keep up and only dancing with Meiling and Kero. Shall we dance?" She questioned in an almost fierce way, staring at Li.

In response to his silence I commented, "Ah, Sakura-chan, I don't believe Li thinks he can keep up. You've always been the best dancer anyway, and now with you all charged up, his nerves are failing him."

"Keeping up isn't the problem." He snorted out, with a look close to a snarl on his face. "I can dance just fine, especially compared to her." I smiled slightly at his scorn, knowing that Li knew perfectly well how good Sakura was. "Why should I dance at all? I don't want to dance with you, and I don't see why I shouldn't just spend the whole night dancing with someone else".

In response to Li's comment Sakura raised one her two shots of Tequila, which she had obviously gotten during my absence, to her lips and threw it down. One of Li's eyebrows gave a slight twitch in curiosity as she finished it, shook her head, and set the small empty glass down. Sakura was obviously dieing to work off some energy. Picking up the one shot left, Li gave a very slow barely real smile, and threw it back, accepting her challenge.

"Because!" Sakura said with a pause, explaining although he was complying, "No one else here that I know is good enough to keep up with either of us aside from these too, and I don't trust you anyway! Come on Li, you kept up last time. You're getting lazy!" Getting up from her seat and walking up to Li she tugged at his arm, "We. Are. Going. Dancing!" Managing to pull him up despite Li's grumbling about how he could do it himself, she grinned evilly and added, "If you stop once, I'm gonna disregard the deal and beat you up so badly you won't be able to take anyone to the Premier. There is enough of my family here to allow me to do it without a scratch! Now, lets go!" Looking back at me she rolled her eyes and muttered, "Damn boys are no fun!"

Laughing as she dragged him out the door, I turned back to Eriol. "Well," I said calmly, "Looks like Sakura doesn't want Li disappearing tonight like he managed to do last time we caught you two. He's quite capable of being as subtle as you in a random way, isn't he?" I received no answer, but I hadn't expected any. Repeating Sakura's line from before, I asked, "Shall we dance?"

Eriol, giving me an extremely evil smile that reassured me that we were still on horrible terms, replied as he stood, "Can you keep up?"

Cracking up hysterically at what I took to be an obvious joke, I rose from my couch and slid my right hand up to rest on his shoulder. Watching his reaction curiously, I saw him raise an eyebrow as he slid his left arm around my waist in response. "My, aren't we bold…" he commented after a pause that was _barely_ noticeable (of course, it was still _noticeable_).

My response was a short, "We might as well make this look good. We don't want to be put to shame by Sakura and Li now, do we?" A smile so light it should have been a smirk passed over his face as he nudged me toward the door.

"That would suck." He said shortly, eliciting a surprised spurt of laughter from me. "And I was asking if you could keep up with Sakura, since I know I can't keep up with Syaoran. Good thing I look better."

This was going to be an interesting night, to say the least. I tilted my head so that my chin rested very slightly on his shoulder, testing his limits. In response he tugged me closer as we walked out to merge with the people dancing.

"Somehow I think we'll manage," I murmured in his ear in a lower tone, and he stiffened again, every muscle tightening and then relaxing in a split second.

I was going to crack Eriol Hiirigizawa. And hopefully it wouldn't take me the full 24 hours.

……………………………………………………. Out on the Dance Floor:

And I found myself frustrated, intrigued, energized, and fascinated in the exact same spot three hours later. Well not the exact same spot, literally, just the same dance floor. An hour of dancing way too close in more way than one, about thirty minutes of drinking as each of us tried to shock the other, another hour and thirty minutes of dancing, and Eriol hadn't even shown signs of cracking. He used my methods back in my face every time we did anything. I could not even elicit a gasp of shock from him. I had even been startled myself a few times. It was horrible. I tried bold, timid, darkly seductive, and bitchy. Nothing ever worked on him. My intimidation was one of my greatest strengths. That and my perception. Eriol was immune to both. I felt blind. I found myself wondering every time I paused if he was feeling as frustrated.

At least we looked good. We looked damn good considering we hated each other. Sakura and Li would've looked better if their dancing didn't look like arguing, with one challenge after the other. It was hardly like they were dancing together. Eriol and I were moving so in synch to each other it was scary. This had to be the first club night I had ever spent where I knew I was looking better than Sakura, and knowing that it wasn't the outfit scared me.

Wanting to prove that you're better than someone who would take delight in killing you, and who you would take delight in killing, spurs one to unbelievable heights. And with Eriol and I, it was a sicker game than usual. Everything Eriol did was sick, come to think of it. Just being exposed to his mind would probably twist someone.

All I could think about whenever I was concentrating on Eriol's piercing sapphire gaze was why he hadn't shot me when he saw me under a streetlight on a nearly abandoned street, instead pointing and waving with the gun held in his hand. Knowing Eriol, it was probably just his curiosity though.

As I contemplated his soul, I hooked my hands around the belt loops of his jeans as I faced him, nuzzling his neck with my nose and nipping at his neck as I pulled his hips even closer to mine, slowing to an almost torturous pace as the speed of the song dwindled, switching to an entirely different beat. I was pissed and confused and since I couldn't drink it off, I damn well was going to dance it off!

A/N: Thanks to a request, a small taste of Eriol's point of view, although I was planning to mainly switch off between just Tomoyo and Sakura for a while.

…………………………………………………………Eriol trying to hold on to Sanity!

'Fuck. Oh, my dear Clow, this night is not going to be easy.' Was the first coherent thought I caught out of the many running past my conscious brain after the girl that named herself after rain you hear at night, but can't ever catch, whispered in my ear. That voice, I was sure, was the most perfectly low and sultry one I could ever hear. It was impossible for anyone to sound better than that. Nevertheless, this was a game. And even if a Ruby Moon popped into the sky, mirroring the normal one, I wouldn't lose it.

Not even if she had just made every single muscle in my entire body tense and relax within the time span it normally took me to blink. Not even if that was the second time she had surprised me and enjoyed my reaction within the span of one minute.

….

I was still just as determined three hours later, the same way I was still on the dance floor, still with her, still confused. Was this girl The Illusion, to have so many different ways of nearly shattering my sanity? I, Hiirigizawa Eriol, king of manipulation, who had actually driven a person into an insane asylum by just speaking to them, who could read Li Syaoran like a book (which was probably only due to experience), was being driven up the wall. My patience was failing, my brain couldn't come up with anything better at this point than copying her methods, and Sakura and Syaoran had just begun to pull it together and dance as well as us. The only thing that would be keeping us even in a few minutes would be Amaya's creativity, and may The Flower condemn me to life without violence if I let her win like that.

A/N: When I put The Illusion, and The Flower I'm referring to the cards, referred to here as Clow (plural) which are substituted for gods in this fic…. Once again if this is too confusing I'll stop doing it and change all the swearing back to normal. Normal curse words are still going to be used, of course.-

But all I could think about now was the amethyst eyes that she had just locked on to me. I could tell she was still trying to see past my mask, see if there was actually a person there. And now she was forcing me to start wondering about it.

'Fuck!' I thought. 'I need something strong. Why couldn't this girl be more like Kaho?' Thinking about Kaho so suddenly, threw my mind out of the careful balance it had had between the dancing and the keeping up with Amaya and the mental ranting (not to mention the sexual control I was having to exercise).

When Amaya suddenly switched styles so suddenly and so in tune to the beat of the song I reacted on instinct, and not the violent one either (surprising, considering the fact that I thought it was the only instinct I had left). Grabbing her with just enough force, I spun her as a fiery Spanish techno mix came on, my head tilting down to allow my tongue to play with the chain of the necklace she wore. The song playing was a remake of one that had a specific dance to it, and half grinding, half doing the original dance in double time, we moved. I broke away once, spinning her fiercely, letting go of her hand completely, before grabbing it as it came around a third time and yanking her back to me. We began a modern version of the tango, and I was still lost in the moment. For the first time since I was seven I was lost in the sensations of life, and not just lust, but passion for movement. Then the song abruptly switched to a Chinese mix, and she halted.

I watched her, coming back to myself, watching her recover. She was panting slightly, a real smile still stuck halfway on in true happiness, eyes half closed, for just a few more seconds before she was back in control. By then, I had more than regained my normal mental state.

She snapped fully upright, giving a purposeful slight blush and nod at the people around us wooping at our dancing, her eyes locked once again on mine. Not daring to glance at Sakura and Syaoran, I spoke before she could, making my voice a little mild.

"Get a drink now, before we become more fully embarrassed in front of our peers?" At her immediate and relieved nod, her eyes broke contact with mine, and we walked off, strutted really, in the position we stalked on in.

Her right hand on my left shoulder, and my left arm hugging her waist.

_All right, that's it for now! Please review! I'm begging ya'll! I really love this story but I want to know how other people do so I know whether to continue this or start another one._

_Gang Name Index:_

_Tomoyo: Amaya Sakura: Ying Fa Eriol: Fang-lei Syaoran: Xiao Lang Sonomi: Kimi _

_Yelen: Kisaki Nadeshiko:Kioko Meiling: Naomi (nickname Leiko meaning arrogance) _

_Rika: Maemi Chiharu: Takara Naoko: Shina Kero: Ta'Ziyah Takashi: Loki Touya:Kisho _

_Yukito: Yasashiku Yue: Shusekihanji Terada: Not joined yet!_


	4. Sakura, the Club, Dancing with Li, and F...

_**Ok people listen up:**_

_**READ THIS: if you're coming back just for the new chapter, be sure to reread the third, cause I added more to it from Eriol's point of view! If you haven't seen that part you may not've seen how I changed Yue and Yukito and Takashi's characters either, so you may wanna check out the second chappy! **_

_**Kyoudai Chishio**_

_**Ok, so please review, please please please, even if you hate it! **_

_**I promise I'll add more action in soon! In fact there should be a little more in this chapter**_

**Sakura, the Club, Dancing with Li, and Flashbacks!**

……………………Sakura on her way to the club with Nadeshiko!

Sighing heavily, I flipped the cover of my cell phone down and threw it back into my small Louis Vitton purse. My mother, who had been listening to see if I could get through as she reapplied her light pink lipstick, looked up.

"No answer again?" She commented in her light and high-pitched voice. "I told you, she probably wasn't carrying it at all today, and just forgot to turn it off at home. She did tell you she was pulling something with Rika and Terada today, remember?" Sighing again at the fact that she had been right, and I was just wasting my time, I shrugged my shoulders.

"I'm still worried something may've happened, though. Rika and Terada said that they haven't seen or heard from Tomoyo since this afternoon. Rika said that she was guarding the entrance while they loaded the weapons into some bags, and when she heard someone coming she told them to take off, since it was only one guy." I complained softly back to my mother, fingering an earring.

"Well, if it was only one person, she's definitely ok. You're just worrying because you're so hyper." My mother commented, using a hand to push some of her curly hair back away from her face.

"Yeah that's true. I'm wired after all that sitting around and trying things on. I mean I like shopping, but we barely moved. Ooh, is this the club! Damn, Meiling did an awesome job!" I switched topics abruptly as my absent minded gaze out the window finally fell on something worth noticing.

"Hmm, it does look great, even better than her last one. She told me that the levels in the middle were being turned into rooms for all the ex-criminals she was employing at this club. Apparently the bottom level is a normal club, and the top is a high-class one, VIP's only tonight." Mother smiled at me as my legs began to bounce in excitement.

As the limo began to slow, I used the intercom system in our limo to tell our driver to wait at the curb in front of the club, Skyline, for just a few minutes.

"I'm going to call Meiling really quickly, okay?" I told my mother. "I wanna see who all's here. Spotting someone moving past our window I opened my door (the one facing the sidewalk) an inch and called out, "Hey! Rika! Over here!"

As my friend, who was clinging to her boyfriend Terada, turned, she squealed out my name in happiness. "Sakura-chan!" Rushing back toward the door, pulling Terada with her, Rika greeted my mother as I pushed the door open fully, motioning for them to get in. "Nadeshiko-sama".

Laughing, my mother responded, "Konnichiwa, Rika-kun, Terada-kun." As the two slid into our limo and the door shut once again.

As my mother began to tell the driver it may be a little longer of a wait then we thought, I tugged Rika's arm and said, "Hey I'm about to text message Meiling to tell her we're coming up, ok? I wanna know if there's anyone already here to dance with me. I don't wanna get stuck dancing with Kero again, like the past five times! Ah! And have you seen Amaya-chan?" I asked, jumping between topics as I remembered about my friend.

Rika smiled widely and pointed to the mini-backpack she was wearing. "Chiharu phoned me saying that she had shown up breathless and early at the club, and not really dressed for it. She probably ran into someone before leaving Scarred territory. Anyway, I threw some stuff together for her. Good thing we were late leaving, ne Terada?" Rika nudged her boyfriend with her elbow while smiling cutely. Laughing, I grinned in slight relief and took out my cell phone once again.

Text messaging Meiling quickly, and mentioning how desperate I was to get dancing, I received no response, and assumed she'd be sending someone down to answer the questions I had asked in the message.

"Nothing." I told the others, who had begun talking about how Rika and Terada's job with Amaya had gone today. "So she's prolly sending Chiharu or Takashi or someone down. Lets start to head up."

Riffling a hand through the curls I had forced upon my hair through tiny braids, I messed them up a little more, and stepped out. Straightening my shirt and shivering in the sudden blast of cold (my sleeves were sheer), I waited for everyone to scoot out before closing the door again and waving goodbye to our driver.

Bouncing a little as I made my way to the door, the four of us were immediately let in by Sammi, a bouncer Tomoyo and I knew almost too well. I grinned at him and gave him a quick hug after slipping him a little tip and continued after the others. Finding our way to the elevators that would take us all the way to the top, and not bothering to take out our passes since my mother and I were so well known (family, after all). Pressing the button to request a ride, and refusing the man staffed to run the elevators, we waited for a door to open. Coincidentally, or not so coincidentally, an elevator's doors slid open to reveal Kero. Or Cerberus, my cousin.

As soon as we stepped into the elevator, we all raised our eyebrows at the mirror-coated walls.

"Well, no offense to Meiling's club," Rika began, "but with this many people in the elevator, I'm beginning to feel a little dizzy." My own eyes were already spinning. Thank Clow the elevator was a fast one. After the initial comments on the elevator, Kero began to give us all a rundown on what he labeled seriously, 'the situation'.

Apparently Tomoyo had been lucky enough to run into two of the heirs of the Li Zaibatsu or Clan (since one is the heir to the Japanese portion of the family company and the other was the heir to the Chinese portion). After they followed her into the club, she had made a deal with them. The specifics, he didn't have time to tell us, because we had already reached the bar in the center of Meiling's awesome glass room.

The others were reacting pretty normally to the news, Terada, who was trusted, but not that deep into our business, found the news interesting from the ways we were reacting. My mother was looking happier than normal, because she knew that something good was about to happen. Rika was looking a little apprehensive (messing with Li and Eriol was known to get dangerous), but she looked a little evil as well. No doubt thinking about what tortures we could put them through.

I was actually getting giddy with anticipation, and a little anger from the long-standing argument between Li Syaoran and I. This news, above everything else, meant that there was someone who I could dance with aside from Kero tonight.

And, it obviously was going to mean pain for Li. And for Eriol. A lot of pain. Well, maybe not a lot, it depended on what kind of mood Amaya was in and the sort of deal she had struck with them. We couldn't just hurt them or anything, because they were very well known, being rich heirs in Japan who were fond of partying. They had almost certainly made sure to let some sort of random rich VIP's know they were here before meeting Tomoyo.

"Rika, Ying Fa!" A bright voice cheered out suddenly, "What's up girls? Going in to join the party they're holding?" Naoko was heading toward us, dressed up as a bartender in black and silver, and jumping on us to greet us while still managing to motion toward the door hidden in the mirror plated wall of the bar.

"Hey Shina!" I responded with her gang name, "Yeah, you know me, I just can't leave these parties alone. They're never good unless they've been crashed."

"Hey Nadeshiko-sama, I think the DJ has a few questions about which song you're going to perform to open. He wanted to play the short mix he did with your vocals last week in prep for this premier as an ending rather than an opening. He just told me to pass that on." As my mother thanked her and was led to the DJ by another bartender she turned back to us.

"Chiharu and Takashi are on the other side of the bar, they were waiting for ya'll. Just let me go get them. And if Kero will write down ya'll's orders while I get them I'll prepare your drinks for ya'll and bring them in to ya later." She gushed at us quickly before pulling Kero behind the counter and thrusting her pad and pencil at him. "Be back quick!" She smiled before walking off.

"Wow." I said happily, "Something's got her a little more peppy than usual. She wasn't even that happy the first time we got her smashed… Anyway Kero I'm gonna have two shots of Tequila. I'm gonna need it to deal with the fuckers Amaya dragged in."

"Why are you complaining?" Terada asked me, smiling, "You're the one that likes surprises. Imagine how we feel."

"It's ok baby," Rika said, wrapping her arms around him, "I'll protect you from the big bad bullies." As we cracked up Rika and Terada gave Kero their orders.

By the time Kero was ripping off the sheet Naoko was back with Takashi and Chiharu. After the usual happy greetings and compliments on outfits, we headed in to deal with 'the situation'. Or situations if you counted Tomoyo's outfit. Just before we headed in Naoko shoved a makeup kit into Rika's bag, telling her Tomoyo would need some touchups.

……………………………..After Tomoyo left the room to Get Changed

There was a tense silence as soon as Amaya left, replacing the light tone she had so easily set. No doubt she had done it so that the difference in tones would be even bigger than usual, to put the boys on edge.

Syaoran, as I called him to annoy him, since practically no one ever calls him that, looked good as usual, but probably more because he had four sisters than because he tried. He was dressed in a sort of punk way, and you could see none of his tattoos. Eriol, whom everyone called by his first name, especially his enemies, was dressed in a black designer t-shirt over black jeans. Screw designer clothes then, no matter what Tomoyo says, because Syaoran still looked better.

Seeing how still they were being, I looked at Meiling, who was smiling dangerously, keeping Eriol's eyes occupied. It was obviously her doing. Meiling had a flair for violence that actually managed to rival her sense of style. Syaoran's eyes were locked onto my face in a glare meant to make grown husky dogs raised in northern Alaska piss in fear. Instead it just fueled my temper a little bit, and I leaned back in my seat and sneared a little bit. Intent on ignoring the glare, Rika, who had gone smileless upon Tomoyo's exit, began to speak. Her attempt was cut short by the opening of the door.

Some bartender I didn't know had entered. Meiling rose to give him a slight hug and a peck on the cheek as she handed me my Tequila shots (how she knew what I had ordered, I'll never know, although Meiling is uncanny about her knowledge of what customers want), and the man handed Rika and Terada theirs.

As the man exited, our silence, which had now been broken, was eliminated permanently when Eriol commented, "What no drinks for your thirsty guests?" Which was sort of stupid, even for Eriol, who seems half insane sometimes.

Meiling however, cracked up and began giggling almost hysterically. Not really hysterically, just pretty hard since the comment wasn't really that funny. I didn't even know what subtle meaning Eriol was trying to hide in it. Or maybe he just hated the silence.

"How about we talk about the deal then Eriol?" Meiling proposed when she stopped giggling. "I'm sure all of the people in this room have restrictions they'd like to add to Amaya's." The next ten minutes were a series of threats and bitchiness and general additions to the sketchy and almost nonexistent briefing we received of the deal Tomoyo struck. I had never realized Chiharu knew how to be so threatening and scary toward guys before that moment, although I'm pretty sure she learned from being around Takashi, who tended to laugh things off rather than get scared. All I had known before this was that Chiharu was the only thing in the world he was afraid of. Now I knew why. Chiharu knew how to hit nerves.

Between her and Meiling, I could almost see the veins in Syaoran's head beginning to throb and swell and twitch. His condition wasn't aided at all by the fact that I kept making light jokes that Meiling would take seriously and turn into ingenious sadistic schemes. Unfortunately before we had really gotten anywhere in our revisions of Tomoyo's plans, she returned.

…………………During the previous scene where Tomoyo is telling everyone what's going on...

Tomoyo's rundown of the deal was efficient, but did not by any means answer all of my questions. Tomoyo was being amazingly nice, considering that the last time she met with Eriol she almost killed him. There was definitely more to the story.

But when I heard what she had arranged for the premier, I was excited. Thanks to my overprotective brother, I never really went with guys to big publicity things like premiers. He was extremely overprotective and anything he knew we'd be going to, he ensured that I was going single too, or I'd have to go with him. If I had appeared with Tomoyo, the press would have assumed we were lesbian and dating, since it would explain Tomoyo's sudden high status and living conditions, and the fact that they never saw me dating much. Basically, she had come up with the perfect plan!

Plus, we all knew this could be very bad for Eriol and Syaoran if they didn't turn it into something good for their family businesses. Everyone here knew that their family was cruel and strict about their public image, and very controlling of Eriol and Syaoran's lives. Of course, the two found ways around that, and had made themselves important and respected, but they could definitely potentially feel the backlash of this.

After the others left, I decided to broach the topic of dancing. I was going to have to dance with Syaoran now. I had to keep an eye on him after all. And no fucking way was I just gonna sit and watch him to make sure he stayed still and didn't leave the club.

"Shall we dance?" I questioned, playing but saying it in a little bit of an angry tone and glaring at him.

Watching Tomoyo brilliantly maneuver Syaoran into the correct phrame of mind, without Eriol moving to stop her and save Li, I began to smile more cheerfully than I thought I was feeling. After all, even though he could keep up with me, it was Li Syaoran I was going to have to dance with.

Then of course, he had to go and say, "Keeping up isn't the problem." He snorted out, with a look close to a snarl on his face. "I can dance just fine, especially compared to her." I was starting to get really pissed at him. He just didn't want to admit I was better. "Why should I dance at all? I don't want to dance with you, and I don't see why I shouldn't just spend the whole night dancing with someone else". He said, his eyes boring into mine. But I had anticipated this. That didn't make him any less annoying.

Damn Li was difficult to deal with. In a dramatic way, I reached towards the table and threw back my shot of tequila. Challenging Syaoran always worked. Of course, I'm not one to talk since challenging me always works too. I wish he'd hurry up and start dancing though. We were wasting time and I was dying to work off energy!

When he rose to come closer, I knew it was working. Reaching down towards the table in front of me, he picked up the remaining shot and smiled.

I don't know how I managed to suppress a shudder. This wasn't one of his cruel smiles, which felt like cold water being thrown all over you, it was a real smile. It was warm and excited and very, very, sexy.

It was also laughing at me. I was now even angrier than ever. He kept playing with my emotions. I was hyper, I was happy because now I'd get to dance, but I was pissed because he was laughing at me, I felt like blushing because my insides had suddenly gone all squeamish, and I was getting even more pissed because he had sat back down after wasting one of my precious shots. Not that it would be difficult to get another one.

"Because!" I said loudly and in an exasperated tone, answering his question from what felt like a very long time ago. "No one else here that I know is good enough to keep up with either of us aside from these too, and I don't trust you anyway! Come on Li, you kept up last time. You're getting lazy!"

Getting up from my seat and walking up to Syaoran I tugged at his arm fiercely, "We. Are. Going. Dancing!" Managing to pull him up despite his grumbling about how he could do it himself, I grinned too innocently and added, "If you stop once, I'm gonna disregard the deal and beat you up so badly you won't be able to take anyone to the Premier. There is enough of my family here to allow me to do it without a scratch! Now, lets go!" Pulling his arm the whole way with both of my hands, I began to stalk out of the room, ignoring the fact that I wanted to smack Eriol's patient and annoying smile off of his face.

Looking back at Amaya as I passed her, I rolled my eyes and muttered, "Damn boys are no fun!"

………………………The First Time They Break for Water

It felt damn good to have someone who could keep up with me again. Of course, we weren't really dancing. It was more like arguing. Our movements were jerky, and I was angry with myself because I kept trying to flirt with my body. I had to keep stopping myself, remembering that he wouldn't respond and I would just embarrass myself. It was hard not to feel self-conscious around Syaoran, especially since he never loses his arrogant stare.

Of course, remembering that he wouldn't respond reminded me of the one time he did. The only other time we danced together. Just before Amaya appeared, at the very beginning of the summer, back when I was dealing with Eriol and Syaoran on my own whenever Rika, Naoko, Chiharu, or Meiling couldn't make it. It didn't seem like that long ago.

FLASHBACK

Swamped in darkness, I stole a moment for a shaky breath before continuing to slide and shuffle my body carefully through the crumbling gap between the old walls. Finally noticing a infinitesimal change in the shade of black that was in the distance, I prayed as I kept going. My progress was slow, but silent.

My prayers to god-only-knows-who were answered when my slow approach gradually revealed a tiny hole of light in the wall I faced. As I neared it the small amount of light seemed larger and larger to my previously blinded eyes.

Reaching it, I shifted gently, putting my ear to the hole, which cut off most of the light, but allowed me to hear voices which had been muddled, but there before I leaned down. There were men arguing and distant club music. This sounded like the right room.

"Jin-sama, you cannot possibly actually be considering going to _her_ for help! I don't care how pushy the bastards are getting; this is a bad idea!" The voice was harsh and gravely. Noticing the name of the person he had been addressing, I raised my eyebrows. The man must be insane to speak to the leader of the Li Zaibatsu that way.

Li Jin, the twin brother of Li Jie, was a harsh business man, cold and practical, but warm for show and for clients. He was the leader of the Li Zaibatsu, being the younger twin, and Li Jie was the leader of the Li clan in China, based in Hong Kong. Li Jin, Syaoran's father, had built the Japanese branch of the clan into a full-fledged Zaibatsu, which was even in financial status to the Li clan in China. Technically they were one and the same, but just the two main branches of the Li business dynasty.

It sounded like I was just in time for the party. Early, even. A personal first for me.

I held my breath waiting for the response, which didn't take long to come. When it did it was chilling and deep, a more mature version of my rival's. Except you could tell the man was not only more mature, but far more experienced in cruelty.

"I find your tone and choice of words ignorant as usual _cousin. _The fact that you seem to believe you may influence an important decision such as this one with the grave business errors you've made in the past on your record amuses me. Amamiya Yelan would be an irreplaceable aid in our endeavor, seeing as how she is already working towards the same goal. She is not under as much pressure as we are, since the borders of her businesses have always been closer to ours then the other two Zaibatsu in question. However, I believe she may accept, and if not this will alert her to the danger. I'd prefer to have this offer out on the table for the Amamiya's to consider as the pressure on their territory grows. In any case, if you have a better idea to secure the Li future, I would love to entertain the notion. But you were never much for thinking ahead." The voice took a more dangerous tone too it, sort of a mix between Li's and Eriol's, "If you question my judgement again, Jian-heng, you will face consequences. You have been far too outspoken recently. Try to remember that you are here on probation to show me that you can still function under pressure."

I shivered at what he implied so obviously. I hadn't thought that the Li's were so cold to their family. But, then again, to survive as a Li you had to be strong, or their many enemies would pick the weak one out and use them to sabotage a business. The sound of another voice broke off my recollection of the Li family history and tactics.

"Sir?" The voice was male and seemed further away then the rest. The man was probably sticking his head in the door. "The three Chishio Kyoudai are here to see you."

A.N: Chishio means blood and Kyoudai means sisters or siblings. So they're known as the blood sisters.

"Good", came Li Jin's deep bass, "Let them in and don't disarm them." In response to the multiple protests this statement elicited, some of which were voicing my own shock, Li Jin's voice responded, "If you men don't recall, the last time we met disarming them was useless. They still managed to hide weapons. And this is a good faith move. We're asking for them to help us at a time when they are barely being pressured and see what we're facing as no threat to them. To be rude would be inexcusable. We have more people here and we are in a location owned by one of our men." Even the mutters had died away at this point, but I heard a faint snort from my position inside the wall.

"I wouldn't push the limits you've tested any further Jian-heng," came Jin's voice once more, "Or you will never experience the freedom to test them again." Silence greeted this comment until a soft cough came. "Ah yes, the ladies. Well gentlemen? Any more protests?" After a slight pause I heard a rustling of cloth break the quiet.

Assuming some sort of nod or hand motion had taken place when I heard the door shut again, I shifted quietly as quickly as I could, my movements still like molasses.

Putting my eye to the hole, I saw the door finish opening again. I watched as my aunt Sonomi Daidouji entered, dressed in a navy and cream feminine business suit. Her short dirty blonde hair was cut in a 'V' which curved down from her ears to her chin on both sides, framing her face. She looked pleasant in a very tight and controlled way.

She was followed by my aunt Yelan, whose black long hair was done up in what would have been a high braid if four braids had not been swinging behind her. She was dressed in a black business dress with a high Chinese collar, with the embroidered outline of dragons done in red covering it. Her ice blue eyes stood out, and she looked cold and commanding.

Last to enter was my mother, Nadeshiko Kinomoto, dressed in a business suit identical to aunt Sonomi's, except it was dark green with cream trim. Both had blood-red scarves around their necks in the place of ties.

While I was looking, I scanned what I could see of the room. There was a man leaning in a surly fashion against the wall. I didn't recognize his face, but from the way he held himself I assumed he was the ignorant Jian-heng. There were two other men in view who were seated. I recognized one as Hiirigizawa Reed, Li Jin's cousin, and Eriol Hiirigizawa's father. He was probably the second most powerful man in the Li Zaibatsu. His wealth rivaled Sonomi Daidouji's, which was saying something.

As I tried to recognize the last man, Li Jin moved into my field of vision, gesturing at a coach I could only see half of. Gazing a little on his face, which I had rarely seen close-up, I absorbed every detail. It was more open than Li Syaoran's, but only in the way of a man who could close up as swiftly as a clam if he felt like it. His eyes were a light brown, as opposed to Li's redder amber. Other than that they looked almost identical.

Somehow I got the impression that Syaoran was less cruel, and less polished. More practical sense and less manipulation. But who was I to judge?

Since I had already been filled in on what the meeting was about, and what my job was, I ignored it when they began to speak. Rarely could I catch even a word, muffled voices being all that could reach my ears.

By Li Jin's hand motions I could tell he was outlining some scenario. Rotating my vision regularly between the people, and keeping an extra close eye on the surly Jian-heng. This was the most exciting guard duty I had ever done by far. If I hadn't been stuck behind a wall observing such a powerful meeting however, it probably would have been dull. And I was sure it would get boring as the meeting progressed.

Suddenly everyone, including Li Jin, turned their faces towards the door, where there must have been a knock.

Sure enough in through the door walked two people.

And I almost cursed out loud in frustration. Moving again very slowly, as carefully as I could, I put my ear to the whole once again.

Li Syaoran had the most maddening ability I had ever heard of. He always knew when someone, or me at least (I only had personal experience in this), was watching him. Hopefully listening wasn't going to count.

"—truly a pleasure to meet such infamous ladies. I've heard so much about you all." Eriol was finishing in a suave tone. I was sure Li had already spoken. As Eriol began a comment on Sonomi-sama's latest business venture, Hiirigizawa Reed spoke up.

"Syaoran?" He questioned abruptly, "What's wrong?" I could tell it was the observation of a man as manipulative and conscious of people as his son, and began the steady stream of cursing in my head that had become my mantra. Shifting as quietly as possible under the circumstances, knowing it would take him a second to figure out which direction I was in I twisted in a very uncomfortable position with my eye to the hole.

I was in time to see him head toward the wall I was seated behind. Hearing an odd sound as he left my line of sight, I knew he was trailing his hand along the wall, inspecting it more closely.

"Syaoran." Li Jin said more sharply, "What is going on?"

They were so loud in the silence and so close to my wall that I could hear them without having my ear to the hole.

"You'll see Otou-sama." He replied shortly, just as cold. I could almost hear the faint icy smile I knew would be on his face. He definitely knew it was me. I was so screwed.

Not to mention the fact that the only fast way out was right through the wall. Probably the direction he wanted me to head in as well.

"It's her again, Father." Eriol told his Otou-san, using the English word for it.

"Her?" questioned my mother, trying to drag some of the attention away from the odd scene in front of them, or at least relieve the tension. Or maybe she just wanted to know how they knew.

Seeing Li Syaoran's shirt up close suddenly, blocking off my light, I heard a light knock on the hidden door in the wall. I wasn't sure if he had noticed there was a door, or just that the walls wouldn't be too hard for me to break through.

"Hello." Li (Syaoran not a different one) said lightly in a low tone. "If you aren't coming out I'll be forced to shoot you. And then lots of us will die trying to hold Nadeshiko back from killing me because I hurt you."

"You'd better come out, Ying Fa." Yelan called out, to my surprise. "Why lose both of you and a few more when everyone knows you've been found out."

"Damnit Li!" I said clearly, and kicked the door open. Which, unfortunately, missed Li Syaoran, thanks to the fact that he had stepped aside, anticipating my temper. The bastard. He caught the door neatly as it swung past where he had previously been standing.

It didn't help my ego any that Eriol was smiling pleasantly. Although it was comforting to see that the annoying Jian-heng was shocked, as were a few of the other Li's. I was scared to look and see how Li Jin was reacting.

My aunt Sonomi stepped forward before anyone could say anything, explaining that I had been there as extra insurance, seeing as how they were meeting in a Li club with Li gaurds and more Li's then Amamiya's.

Jian-heng cut her off in the middle of the polite apology that followed the short explanation.

"And, of course, it wouldn't have been too bad if she had shot some of us after you refused our deal!" The Li cousin stated furiously, with far too much uncontrolled anger to be tolerated.

I looked expectingly at Li Jin, who, as he turned to his cousin, acknowledged the look with an amused face before scathingly stating, "Don't be stupid Jian-heng. She had to shoot through a wall with plenty of armed Li's in the room she'd be shooting in. She's obviously nothing more than a security measure. You're excused from this meeting by the way. I need you to go manage the security outside." Turning back to me his tone grew a touch warmer than the ice cold one he had employed with his cousin, who was now leaving the room.

"Kinomoto Sakura-hime." He said, outdoing even Eriol's charm before toning it down a notch with a stern tone, "Next time you hide in one of my walls you won't be nearly this fortunate. Be happy that I find this meeting to be of a higher importance than my anger with you. Not that it wasn't a little amusing as well." I could tell he was heading into a more playful frame of mind, which reminded me of Eriol's but with Syaoran's sadistic twists.

"Yelan, or should I be addressing Nadeshiko, I hope you don't mind if I suggest that Syaoran and Eriol escort Sakura down to our club. My son will ensure that she doesn't get into any trouble." His amusement at my situation would have made me furious if the entire ordeal weren't so intriguing. Li Jin was an amazingly intricate version of his son, who was interesting enough. I found my curiosity peaked by the Li's.

Of course… I was still pissed. This meant that Li (Syaoran) would be watching me like a hawk for the next hour or so. Maybe even the next few hours. Shit.

Of course, Eriol merely widened his smile and offered his arm after Yelan and Nadeshiko exchanged glances, which preceded nods towards Li Jin. After accepting his arm, he passed me to Li (Syaoran). Eriol went to hold the door as Li escorted me somewhat roughly through it, and we pulled away just after the door closed.

God this was going to be annoying. Or fun. I was untouchable for now, so I might as well piss them off a little.

End chapter but not necessarily Flashback….

_**Tell me if ya'll liked it, Ok?**_


	5. Sakura and Syaoran’s interesting club ni...

_**Yay, I finally got around to doing another one! I just want to thank everyone who reviewed, because seriously, getting reviews urges me to write more!**_

_**Sorry I took so long to update but I've been working on another story! **_

_**Ya'll should go check it out, it's called 'The Side of Life People Never Get to See'. It's Cardcaptor's and it isn't an AU!**_

_**Disclaimer: No I'm not part of CLAMP, and no I don't own this. **_

**_Chapter 5: Sakura and Syaoran's interesting club night_**

;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:Continuing Flashback:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;;;:;:;:

Stepping out of the room and immediately pulling away from the arm Li had draped lightly around my waist, I examined the new room. The music was much louder here, and the room was darker and lit in green. The couches looked plush, and they were gathered around a circular glass table. Across from me was a doorway that probably would lead to the club. The room looked like it was a VIP room.

I sighed loudly. "Just take me to the bar…" I said, "Actually is there a restroom first? I need to get all the stuff that stuck to me while I was inside the wall off."

Syaoran pointed wordlessly to a door to my left that had the Chinese symbol for 'woman' on it in black. Or, at least I think it was black. It was difficult to tell in the green light.

"Great." I said in thanks, heading towards it.

"Be fast Kinomoto." He said shortly. And, if I might add, rudely. Such a typical Li thing.

"Whatever, Li." I answered, turning back to smile at annoying bastard, opening the door and stepping into the bathroom.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I shuddered.

"No wonder he was so rude." I said out loud, "I look like… ugh!"

My hair was covered in wall dust, as was the thin black jacket I had pulled over my silk pink cream lace-lined tank top. My black jeans luckily didn't look that bad with the dust on them. It actually looked pretty cool, but the jacket looked horrible. It was probably ruined.I could even see the cobwebs on it.

Shuddering a little bit, (it had been freezing in the wall and it was too warm in the bathroom), I pulled the jacket off. Pulling my gun out of it, I thought about where I could slip it.

"Hmm… Nowhere really… I suppose I'll have to leave it in the jacket. Damn. At least I'll have the two strapped to my legs though…" Pouting at the thoughts I was speaking aloud to myself, I put it back into the jacket.

Looking at my face next, I sighed yet again. It was covered in black smudges, cobwebs, and dust.

"There's nothing I can do but wash it thoroughly, I suppose. It's not as if I have any makeup with me."

I reached down towards the sink and washed my face with the foam soap they had

"Oh thank goodness!" I said happily. "All that's really left is my hair." Luckily I had gelled it into a ponytail, because it never all stayed up if I didn't use gel. So I brushed a lot of dust off, (it was easy because my hair had been hardened by the gel) being careful to lean over a bit so I didn't just brush the dust back onto myself. Pulling it down from its ponytail I ran my fingers through it, knocking the rest of the dust to the floor.

Looking up at myself, I made a funny little grimace at myself. All in all I looked ok, except I had no makeup on, and my shoes were black sneakers.

"Oh well," I said out loud one more time, "At least I have the shirt." To be honest, my hair looked sort of cool too, with half of the gel still in it making it look wet.

Picking up my jacket, I left the restroom. To my surprise, only Li was standing outside.

"Did Hiirigizawa have to piss or something?" I asked, shocking myself with my language. I mean, yes I was in high school, but normally I didn't speak so crudely. I could tell Li had noticed, because one of his eyebrows had given the tiniest of inquiring twitches. I smiled, noticing how easy he was to read.

A/N: by 'read' I mean she can tell what he's thinking by signals he gives off when he moves or how he reacts to things.

Of course, now the only difficult thing about him was figuring out how he'd react to things. Seeing the reactions didn't really help at all.

"He went to get us drinks, _princess_, since you took so long." Li stated in a toneless voice. Well, to be fair, it sort of had a tone. Just no emotion.

"Oh, and you expect me to be sorry for the inconvenience? I would have spent all night in there, if I wasn't sure that you'd barge in there after a few more minutes demanding that I get out so you can go dance with your whores." I bit off in response, leaning forward a bit and feeling my face pull into an angry expression. I threw my jacket onto one of the couches while I waited for a response.

Unfortunately, Li just raised his eyebrows.

"And what whores would these be, dear cousin?" Hiirigizawa had come back with the drinks and was standing in the doorway. "I wasn't really thirsty, but I brought you something strong Syaoran, like you asked. Gomen, Kinomoto-san, but I didn't know what you wanted, so I got you water, thinking all of that climbing around in the wall would have made you thirsty." Hiirigizawa apologized. "I wasn't sure if you drank, anyway."

Eriol was so odd. All the things I had heard about these two always made Eriol seem worse, but he was so much more polite…

"Oh, believe me, I drink." I said. "But… Syaoran-kun looks so upset already, we wouldn't want to put such strong liquor into such an angry male. I'm sure he wouldn't mind drinking the water. He's going to be a good host for me, like his father said, ne?" I replied, reaching for the Mai Tai in Eriol's left hand. I began to sip at it, watching Eriol's smile grow and Li's expression get steadily more and more pissed.

Almost no one ever called him Syaoran. Only certain members of his family, maybe one or two of his friends, one of those being Eriol, who was also family, and his future wife would ever _get_ to call him that. Anyone else who knew him too well to call him Li called him by his Chinese name, Xiao Lang. I knew it was the perfect way to piss him off since, thanks to his father, I was safe.

Plus, I had left him with water, while I was happily sipping away at his alcohol.

Suddenly Syaoran's face lost all of its angry expression. Taking a step towards me, he gave me a look. It was freaky, because I knew it was a glare, but the rest of his face held no expression. Just when I was beginning to seriously get freaked out, he reached out and took the Mai Tai out of my hand. Taking one big gulp, he put it back into my hand, which was still shaped as if it was holding the glass (since I was in shock).

Leaning down, he whispered in my ear (I could practically feel his lips), "I figured you wouldn't mind that, _Sakura-chan_. Since we're so close now and all."

I closed my eyes as he spoke, and all I could think was 'Wow he smells good.' My immediate next thought was, 'Damn his voice is deep.'

I felt him pull away, and my eyes flew open.

Eriol was grinning like one of Satan's little helpers, and Syaoran was… smiling? My eyes flashed back to his face, but it looked expressionless again, so I couldn't tell if it had been a smile.

Giving Syaoran one of my brightest smiles, I lifted the glass, said, "Arigatou Gozaimasu for the drink Syao-kun." Turning slightly towards Eriol I said, "Cheers!", and chugged the rest of it down.

Eriol laughed out loud at this and, putting his hand on Syaoran's shoulder, patted it twice in sympathy, and said, "She's all yours 'Syao-kun'. If it comforts you, I've heard that she's a hell of a dancer." Just as I was about to get outraged (since he was implying I was difficult to handle, which is actually true), he turned to me and said, "And Syaoran doesn't like whores, Kinomoto, because they remind him of the painted clowns at an American circus we went to when we were young. Have fun introducing my dear cousin to dancing again. He hasn't danced with a girl in ages. We were beginning to think he's gay, but I see now he isn't. Ja, you two." Before one of us had the chance to shoot him, he was gone, leaving the water on the glass table in the center of the room.

Of course I probably wouldn't have shot him, because I realized then that Eriol wasn't that bad. In fact, he had been quite nice just now, pissing off Syaoran for me.

"Well at least _he's_ not as mean as the stories say." I remarked in quiet voice.

"Seriously? He just left you with me for the night, when he's been much more civil to you than I have. Are you sure you want to say that?" Li said through his anger. I could hear him mutter "Damn, I can't believe he let that slip!" just after.

"Fuck. You're right. But I guess he sort of made up for it. I can't believe you're scared of women who wear too much make-up." I said, starting to giggle.

"I am **Not Scared!**" He said forcefully. "I just think they look ugly." He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. "Just go dance or something." He said shortly.

"No." I replied.

"No?" He said, looking at me oddly. "But we've heard you're practically obsessed with-"

I cut him off. "What if I run away and tell my mother that you two tried to shoot me or something? You'd get in a lotta trouble…" I said in as cunning a voice as I could manage.

"What do you want." He said dryly.

"I need someone to dance with. I know all of the people at this club will recognize me as being an enemy of the Scarred, and most of them are friends or friends of friends of the Scarred or the Li's or something, right? So I need you to be sure I keep all of my body parts attached, and I need you for a dance partner. Let's go." Reaching for his hand I began to pull him towards the door.

"You know that both Eriol and I would reach you before anyone killed you." He said, pausing as if he was considering something. "Or, before you killed them. But I know how you like being close to me…" He began to tease me again, putting his arm tightly around my waist as we walked towards the doorway that leads to the club.

I began giggling when his hand rested on my stomach. "No...hahaha...Li—take away your hand, it tickles!"

His arm left my waist and he stopped walking and turned to look at me.

"… Are you serious?" He said disbelievingly. I wiped a tear from my eye.

"Yeah, I'm really, really ticklish there." I said, breathing deeply.

"Demo," He pretended to whine, "The silk felt nice on my hands…" He suddenly began to tickle me fiercely.

I responded with laughter, trying to make it as quiet as I could, remembering the three ladies who had complete rule over my life and the credit cards I used to shop were in the room next to us.

I managed between laughs to tell Syaoran he should stop because if I screeched with laughter too loudly, our parents would come out and see us.

I had collapsed onto a couch while he was tickling me, and now I flopped back against it. Catching my breath, I looked at him. This was a totally weird side of Li Syaoran.

He was sitting on the couch next to me, leaning back with his arms clasped behind his head. He wasn't smiling, but I could tell he was happier than he had been. It was like a weight had been lifted. As if something that had been putting stress on him had been forgotten.

As I watched, his face tightened from expressionless to a slight frown.

"Keep frowning, Li, and you'll have wrinkles." I said to him lightly. "What was pissing you off more than usual? Oh, and what do I do with my jacket?" I added, seeing my jacket still slung over the side of the couch next to me.

"Are you always this nosy? Or do I just get special treatment?" He said in response. "And if you care about a ruined jacket that much, I guess I could have someone come pick it up…"

"Well," I answered, "Whatever you have to say could be useful for me if this deal doesn't work out…" I smiled at him. Despite his lapse back into rudeness, I could tell he wasn't that serious. "And when you get someone to do that, make sure they leave the gun in it, or I'll be really pissed."

"Just a school thing… forget it. I thought you were dying to dance?" He said, avoiding in two sentences both my question and thoughts about what would happen if the deal didn't work out. "And I can grab a guy on our way down to the club…"

To my surprise, I realized I had actually not really been pissed at him since I picked up his Mai Tai.

It was shocking how quickly it took for the two of us to get along, when just less than an hour ago I hated him fiercely.

"Hmm, you're right. It's definitely time to dance." I mused out loud. "Let's go!"

……………………….Syaoran's point of view (still in Flashback)…….(_I know its Sakura's flashback but bear with me, here! I really wanted to do this part from Li's point of view.)_

Everyone was staring at us as we approached the floor of the club.

The VIP room had been on a second level that overlooked the main floor.As we began to mingle with the crowd and pick our way through, I found that people just moved out of our way. People normally did for me anyway, but it was more obvious tonight.

Probably due to the fact that I had my left arm draped around Kinomoto Sakura's waist, (my hand carefully avoiding her stomach to keep her from breaking out in giggles), and the fact that her right hand was resting up on my shoulder. Something that actually worked, since she was built taller than a most girls.

She had the thinness of her mother, the naturally frail-looking build, but the height of her father. Looking at her, she actually didn't look frail like Kinomoto Nadeshiko. The height gave her a more athletic feel.

Despite my reluctance to dance, I had actually sort of missed it. The only thing that ever really held me back at clubs was the fact that most of the girl's were whores. There were a few girls who were damn good dancers, but pretty much all the rest sucked at it. Or they were the type who just wanted to get in my pants. It wasn't like I didn't think girls were hot. I just usually ended up hating they're whiny personalities.Theycould be so annoyingly clingy, always wanting us to 'protect them' from shit they get themselves into.

But Sakura Kinomoto actually wasn't pissing me off so far. Thinking about it, I didn't think I've ever heard her whine. She's only ever been pissed at me… unless she was laughing at me. And she definitely didn't want people to protect her.

It probably helped in the whole 'getting along' thing that she was absolutely gorgeous, even covered in cobwebs and dust from inside a wall.

Reaching somewhere near the center of the floor (all of the dancers had moved for us too), I slid the arm I had draped around her up her arm until it was holding her right hand, doing a half turn as I did that, so I was facing her.

I gave her a spin and then another half twirl and pulled her back to me so that I was facing the back of her head. She put her arms above her head and I put my arms loosely around her neck as she set her hands down on my head.

A/N: so basically he's facing her back and she's reaching behind her and holding his head… I dunno it makes sense to me…

And then we moved. There wasn't really any other word for it. The techno beat was slow at the moment, so I figured we'd move around a little bit (she had probably gotten stiff in the wall), and then we could pick up the pace later.

Hearing her say something I grabbed her waist and turned her, leaving my hands there. She dropped her arms to loop around my neck and, sticking her head to the side of my, said into my ear.

"I thought Eriol said you were a good dancer? Come on now, Little Wolf, this is nothing!"

A/N: She said his name in American that time, ok?

I smiled slowly at this, hearing the beat of the music begin to pick up. Despite her comment, I could tell she was enjoying herself.

Speaking into her ear, I asked, "Are you honestly saying I'm not turning you on at all?" Before giving her a chance to reply, I took her arms in my hands. Pulling them above her head I held her wrists there with my left hand, and put my right arm around her waist, pulling her up tight to me.

It was a sort of Salsa-techno mix now, and occasionally I'd loosen my hold on her wrists to let her twirl in my grip.

I put my head to the side so that I was just grazing the skin of her neck with my mouth as our bodies began to move even faster to the music. I heard her gasp when my lips hit her skin. Placing butterfly kisses in a line underneath her right ear, I pulled away when I reached the center of her neck.

"I might have to rethink what I said," She told me with a small smile.

It took me a second to recall what she was talking about. Her eyes were so green in her face. It was such an exotic color in contrast with her Japanese face…

My grip on her arms loosened and she spun slowly this time, still in close to me, as she moved her hips in slow circles that brushed against me once each time she started a new circle. "Am I any good?" She asked, teasingly in my ear when she had fully turned.

"That was mean." I answered, and I kept dancing, focusing only on the music and Sakura.

A/N: Sorry if you don't quite get what I was talking about here. I'm not that good a dancer so I was trying desperately to come up with stuff to put in here for the dancing parts.

………………..Sakura's Point of View, after they've danced…

Eriol was definitely right. Syaoran was an awesome dancer. He was actually able to keep up with me for about two hours before we needed to stop for a break.

We were at the bar getting some water when my mother and my aunts came down the stairs leading from the VIP rooms. Eriol had just been on his way back to the dance floor (he had found us at the bar when we took a break from dancing and was talking to us), but he turned around and warned Syaoran when he saw them come down.

They each had an escort, and Yelan was walking with Li Jin (Syaoran's father). Syaoran and I looked at each other, and then I sighed.

"The deal didn't work out… Well, I'm almost sure anyway… The Snakes haven't been pressuring us enough. Yelan-sama was going to try and keep the option for cooperation open for another year or so…" I said to them, looking down. I felt as if I had betrayed them by not telling them the deal most likely wouldn't go through.

Setting down my water I began to pick through the crowd and approach my relatives. The two boys followed.

"Sakura," Sonomi said, "We're going to go now, are you ready?"

"Of course…" I answered, "Oh, umm, my jacket…" I turned to Syaoran. "Li-san," I asked him, "My jacket?"

Li's face had gone cold and emotionless towards me. I didn't notice any feeling in his face even when I heard myself go back to using his last name. It made me realize that my face was holding just a slight amount of scorn. The minute I had reached my mother and her sister's my old habits had come back.

"It'll be at the front desk, Kinomoto-san." He said shortly.

"I hope you all had a good night," Eriol added, "Hopefully you'll be returning in not such a long time…" I knew he was referring to the failed deal when he added the last part on.

"Thank you Hiirigizawa-san, Li-san, for such an _enjoyable_ time," I added, overdoing the politeness a slight amount so that the adults wouldn't think that any of us had actually enjoyed ourselves.

After a few more pleasantries, we left the club.

The next week I got into a fight with some Scarred and Syaoran. Eriol wasn't there.

It got more bloody than usual, and I was dizzy for a week from where my head had been smashed back into a brick wall. It took me forever to get the blood out of my hair. Syaoran was kicked in the groin and went around with a bandaged arm for a week and a half for making my head hurt.

Aside from that one fight being more violent than usual, due to the fact that both of us were off-balance from memories of that night, the dancing and the laughing had been completely forgotten.

And every time he looked at me, he did it with scorn or anger. Of course, being fair, I acted the same way towards him...

;:;:;:;:;:;:;;:;:;:;:;:;:Flashback over:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;

_**The end of this chapter!**_

_**Thank you all of my reviewers, you're all awesome.**_

_**I AM DROPPING THE WHOLE USING CLOW AND THE CARDS AS 'GOD' THING. Like when I said 'Oh clow' instead of oh god… I decided that was stupid…hehe**_

_**And HealingOpal, I hope he loses his mind enough for you in this one… **_

_**I tried really hard to make differences in the way Syaoran and Eriol react to things and the way Tomoyo and Sakura react to things! So tell me if I need to change anything.**_

**_And Dream, thank you for your help on Chinese pronunciation, but is it spelled Feng as well? Or do you still spell it Fang?_**

_**Sorry it took so long to update! Go check out my other story, **_

_**The Side of Life People Never Get to See !**_


	6. Yet again, the Night is Still Young!

_**Well, damn… it definitely took me a long time to update… hehe.. sorry about that, any of you reviewers that like this thing! I am so so sorry! **_

_**That's about it for this one… seriously, enjoy and review (please)!**_

_**Short recap:**_

**So we just had the flashback, which Sakura ended with talking about the really bloody fight and how he always looked at her with scorn and anger.**

_**Chapter 6: Dancing through till Morning**_

Sakura's Point of View:

What the fuck kind of right did he have to make me feel bad for enjoying myself, anyway! I should have been the one looking at him like that. Of course, I might have been anyway… It's hard to tell who did it first.

And why the hell did Tomoyo have to be so nice to them. Meiling and Yue would have had a most enjoyable time torturing them both, slowly. It would have sucked for some of us later, most likely, but it would have been nice for a little bit.

And now he was touching me, moving against me, and we were both relaxing.

Things would be so much easier if I weren't able to tell he was remembering as well.

I could feel his muscles loosen, feel him realize how close we were and not care. Huge, for him, because it meant his reflexes were just a touch slower. Even worse, I knew if he had relaxed that far, it meant I wasn't on my guard, despite this stupid conversation I was having in my head.

'_It feels like an out of body experience. Like, I'm just watching us move from somewhere deep inside my head.' _

My breath _woosh_ed out as he suddenly grabbed me and dipped me until I felt the edges of my hair brush the floor.

'_Except out of body experiences don't usually include being aware of every place my skin comes in contact with his body.'_

Then I saw an evil smile creep onto his face and, of course, my next thought was: Oh shit…

Still, I kept having fun.

Syaoran's PoV:

The moment I felt her full attention switch from our dancing to something else, I began discreetly glancing around for Amaya and Eriol.

Doing anything to keep myself from remembering the last time I had enjoyed myself this much, I had turned this into a contest, as I knew Eriol had.

Now that the blossom had danced off her anger, I figured we could start keeping up with them. I knew that they were good enough to out-dance us if we weren't really dancing together. So far, our movements had been owned by the fact that we were very stiff and formal, not really wanting this to be a repeat of last summer's experience.

The beat switched to something out of Spain, and I finally caught a view of the two. They had started into a modified tango, and, everyone had to admit, it looked damn good. They could both seriously dance.

It sucked for them that I knew we were better.

I kept dancing until I felt Sakura's attention return. As I watched the warring couple half a dance floor away from us finish up, I began to smile. Of course, it was a cold smile, but it was still a smile.

I heard the rhythm of the music begin to change, and grinned when I heard the whooping from my friend's dance die down as the two modestly left the floor. This was perfect for what I was planning.

It was a very hyper remix of a Chinese group that used ancient string instruments to produce modern music which sounded as if it had gone through a synthesizer. Basically, it was like techno played on string instruments that, when remixed, was going to sound like it was taking shots of pure sugar.

Luckily, this was a song they had redone in their instruments that originally came out of Mexico. The group redid it and their version had gone through a circuit of high-end clubs in Amsterdam. Now the remix was played globally.

I leaned down to shout in her ear, "Alright, Eriol and Tomoyo just left the dance floor. Wouldn't it be great if they were ashamed to come back?"

Her green eyes began to glitter wickedly as she followed my lead. Stealing an idea back that Eriol had originally stolen from me, I led her into a modernized and altered version of a salsa dance, at half the speed of the Chinese song.

We picked up speed, our moves becoming more and more complex. I added one spin each time I twirled her, until we were up to tempo and she was twirling six times before resuming the normal dance steps.

I slid her under my legs, pulled her one armed over my head (which she pulled off by going over in a sort of slow backbend, one leg at a time) and slid her under my legs again in time to twirl her three times so quickly it only took two pulses of the music.

The last note of the tune was held out as the pulse of the techno remix shifted, and I acknowledged it by ending her twirls in a slow dip. It lasted exactly the full length of the note, and an abrupt pull up to my height once it finished was met with whistles and hollers of approval.

"Well." She said, tugging me off to the bar and waving with tired flaps of her free hand to those who still whistled, "I think we definitely kicked their asses out of this club."

"Yeah, totally sucks for Meiling. She totally just lost a client. And I say one only because Eriol will most likely never be allowed in after allowing Amaya to lose this. Or maybe a little bit because he's part of an opposing gang and clan, but whatever." I added carelessly.

"Yeah, forget the details." She added as we strutted towards the bar.

Tomoyo/Amaya's PoV

"Clow fuck it, they're totally kicking our asses now. Why couldn't they just stay pissed long enough to lose. I hate it when Syaoran forgets he's angry just so he can win things." My companion sighed over his glass mournfully, his gaze fixed to the dance floor.

I raised my face from my water glass to try and see what was happening to get Eriol so mock-pissed off. Witnessing Li pull my cousin underneath his legs, over his head, and then underneath them again, I winced.

"Shit, I can't even bend that way, much less dance like that. Stinks that we can't keep up but oh well… I can still pretend like I'm better at arming and disarming bombs." I said with a polite smile over towards my companion, forgetting the fact that I was trying to find a way to break through his polite façade.

As I said this, the song changed, and whistles could be heard over the sound of the music.

Raising a single eyebrow, my vain companion tilted his head quizzically and asked "Well are you? Better, I mean."

"Oh yes, I'm definitely better than her. I am perfect after all… but I don't know which of us can use bombs better… I don't believe we've ever gotten to test it. It would be fun though. I enjoy explosions." I said charmingly, sipping at my water and turning to see Sakura and Syaoran stop in front of us.

"Yes," Sakura said, smiling in an excited way, "It would be very fun. And explosions can be beautiful." She sighed and looked off into the distance as if imagining one.

"Oh Dark, please never let fate put these two together with Nakuru…" Syaoran groaned.

"What, that sometimes hyperactive and sometimes dangerous looking girl with the maroon hair? If she weren't a Hiirigizawa I would have said hello the first day I saw her on campus, maybe even asked her to examine some homemade weapons designs with me to look for flaws. Sucks that her passions are wasted in the free time we have at lunch all because she's affiliated with you, ne? I do love the way she dresses, though. If that truce thing you tried to offer us ever pulls through, do suggest her to me will you? Sonomi would love to have her as a model…" I said in a thoughtful tone as I finished off my water.

"Syaoran, telling them that was so not a good idea. Next Nakuru will have them over to help her design new motorcycles or something while she chatters on about those 'hot seniors' or whatever. Girls…" Eriol drawled, rolling his eyes and eliciting laughs from Sakura and I.

With shock, I realized that the four of us were enjoying the company of other teenagers who could keep up with us on a mental level and who were even with us on a mature level.

Seating themselves, the other two turned towards us.

"So," Sakura began, crinkling her eyes in a smile, "Too bad about you two getting crushed by us on the dance floor. Looks like our performance was way more appreciated-" She was cut off by Eriol's aristocratic 'hah'!

"Laugh it up old man, but we could take you two anywhere and anytime." Syaoran said before Eriol's mouth could form another word or expressive vocal grunt.

"Old man?" I inquired innocently as I waved the empty water glass at a bartender.

"According to my cousin, who's only about … wait… am I even older than you?" Eriol cut himself off, counting silently on his fingers, but getting lost before he got very far.

"You mean you don't know?" Sakura said, looking at them oddly.

"Well it isn't really how the joke started." Syaoran said grabbing one of the two waters that had been set down for Sakura and him. "It's just that he acts so old and world-weary sometimes. And he's a damn cranky bastard whenever he loses anything. Unless it's something he goes into knowing I'm gonna beat him. Just can't go down without a fight though, can you, old fart?"

"Syaoran, once again, your maturity amazes me. However did you manage to retain the mind and control of a four year old child with special needs? I honestly can't believe your brain is that advanced." Eriol inquired in the exact same innocent tone I had used only sentences before.

As Sakura began to laugh at Syaoran, I added in, "Oh come now, Hiirigizawa-kun, we mustn't make fun of the unfortunate. I'm sure he wasn't that stupid before he met all of the smart people…"

This was the last straw for Sakura, who laughs easily anyway. Thinking her giggles had been dying down, Sakura had just begun to take another gulp of water. Choking on it, she coughed it all back into the glass and practically erupted in hysterical laughing and pointing.

"Didn't any of your sadistic relatives ever drum into you head that it's rude to point and laugh at the same time?" Syaoran asked her, scowling when she drew curious stares towards us.

"Yeah," she managed to get out, "It's only okay if you do it to someone who seriously just got burned."

He sighed and gave a friendly nudge to the back of her head, which now showed signs that there had been tears of mirth rolling down her face somewhere during this last page of the fanfic.

She recovered and, leaning an elbow on his shoulder, raised her glass high, announcing, "This next gulp will decide by just how big a margin we completely crushed the pathetic dancers next to us."

She proceeded to chug her water glass down, following it with Syaoran's so smoothly that she didn't even breathe in between the glasses.

"Damn." I said when she was two thirds of the way done, "Sorority's are going to be dying to have you join them so they can dominate the drinking games once you reach college…"

She finished and slammed both glasses down onto the bar happily (she had been grasping one in each hand…). Sitting back and looking like a satisfied and well-fed cat, she removed her elbow from Syaoran's shoulder.

"I protest." Eriol said suddenly. I turned to see a mock pout on his face. "That was two gulps…"

"And it's too bad that those people on your other side are so bad at dancing. We never saw them, but did they suck that much?" I commented, referring to the couple making out on the chairs on the opposite side of Syaoran, who was seated next to Sakura, who was seated next to me, who was seated next to Eriol.

**Author's Note**: Remember, they're at a bar, so it's a straight line! It goes: strange making out couple, Syaoran, Sakura, Tomoyo, Eriol.

Sakura raised her eyebrows, an obvious imitation of the look Eriol adopted whenever the blatant truth was denied and said, "I suppose we'll just have to have a rematch when my mother starts singing then, ne?"

"Sure, why not?" Eriol said with a touch of arrogance, "If you have that much lack of confidence in your previous performance."

"Yeah, well, I just think that Sakura and I weren't really in sync, you know? I mean really, for us that wasn't really a top-notch performance. Come on, now, you have to admit, some of our moves ended just a smidgen off of the beat." Syaoran said in a falsely worried voice, mocking Eriol's classic western manners by using the british word 'smidgen'.

Despite the mockery, at the completely serious looks I saw Syaoran and Sakura exchange and the nods of understanding shame they both did, my jaw still dropped a touch. I knew both Eriol and I probably had looked shocked for a split second.

After Sakura and Syaoran had finished basking in the smugness they got from fooling us for a second, Sakura began to excitedly shift around in her seat.

"Ooh, Amaya-chan I have such a good idea! Let's do a dance-off!" She said, getting blank looks from us at her suggestion to do the very thing we had just been discussing. Registering our looks, she shook her head, once-tight pin curls now loose and flying around. "I mean with different pairs! You and me versus Syaoran-sama and Eriol-sama! How funny will it be when they lose!"

I began to smile when I realized what she had in mind, and began to look around for some of our other friends.

Meanwhile, the guys enjoyed not exactly mutual looks of _'Oh fun! Experimentation!'_ and **'Oh Clow, what a totally girlish idea. Am I supposed to find this idea _funny_?'**

**Author's Note: **Hint: Syaoran is the one in bold… Eriol in italics…

In the end, it was an enjoyable time, despite the company. And I say 'despite' because I'm too worried the phrase 'because of' may be an accurate replacement of it. Chiharu and Rika paired up, and Takashi and Terada joined up. Sakura and me and Eriol and Syaoran tied. The others got bored of watching and left to get drinks, so we just gave up.

After a visit to the bar, we all ordered drinks and Naoko appeared, off of her shift, to suggest a game of 'Ten Fingers' with alcohol. Everyone agreed, and we found ourselves at a circle of couches off to the side of the club, near the glass wall, on the opposite side from the door, behind the highest white column on which VIP's were gathered.

Sakura's PoV:

The game 'Ten Fingers' is a game in which you sit in a circle and each person holds out all of their fingers. The first person to go begins with 'I've never…' and may fill in the blank with anything they'd like. Since the object of the game is to put all ten fingers down first, people try to say things that they have done. If someone says 'I've never done blah blah blah', any player, including the one who said it, must put down a finger if they have done it. It gets very interesting very quickly, and although Terada and Syaoran had never played, everyone else knew how to do it, so we got settled fairly quickly. The shots had been carried on three trays. Naoko had taken two and Chiharu had grabbed the other.

The modified version, a.k.a. Chiharu's version, was where anyone who had more than three fingers left up by the end of a round had to take a shot.

We all crammed into some couches and loveseats centered around a table, and proceeded to play.

**The End!**

**_Sorry! It was shorter than normal because I really really wanted to update for ya'll the minute I started to work on this. I threw it together in a little over an hour,_ so feel free to point out any editing mistakes**

**I'm trying to get ya'll some dirt on the characters's in the next scene, so look out for it. The next chapter should be coming up soon, because it'll be a total blast to write!**

_**No, I didn't forget about Kero, I'm just having him step in halfway through the game! I think I may have him step in with a three finger handicap and win or something, but anyway…**_

**Please review, and don't hate me for not updating, I promise I'll be better now that summer has started!**

_**Much love to my fabulous reviewers-**_

_**Mermaid's Lagoon**_


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